Etymograph

English

mid

Mid comes from Old English midd ‘middle’, from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos ‘middle’, and ultimately from *médʰi ‘with, among’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*médʰi1‘with’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*médʰyos1‘between’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*midjaz1‘mid’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*midi1‘middle’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150midd1‘mid’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mid1‘mid-’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1852mid1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English mid
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1852, Herman Melville: “Passing through the silent village, he heard the clock…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*médʰiWiktionary, English mid‘with’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*médʰyosWiktionary, English mid‘between’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*midjazWiktionary, English mid‘mid’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*midiWiktionary, English mid‘middle’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150middWiktionary, English mid‘mid’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500midWiktionary, English mid‘mid-’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1852midWiktionary, English mid. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1852, Herman Melville: “Passing through the silent village, he heard the clock…”

The story

The slang sense may be influenced by terms such as middling and midwit.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‘to do’

do, fact, deal, hot, fair, defense, fan, benefit, fashion, feature, theme, defence, custom, ethnic, sufficient, treasury, treasure, ethical, thesis, aesthetic, defendant, feast, synthetic, theology, doom, tick, deed, dis, atheist, ethic, auditorium, auditor, atheism, deem, spade, thematic, ethos, forfeit, feral, fanatic, 123 more

through Proto-Indo-European *médʰi ‘with, among’

medial, medallion, meson, 5 more

through Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos ‘between, in the middle, middle’

mean, media, medium, medal, demi, mezzanine, moiety, medulla, meso, medio, maidan, moyen, intermezzo, 32 more

through Proto-Germanic *midjaz ‘mid, middle’

midst, 2 more

Another origin of mid

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*midiuncertain
  2. Old High Germanc. 750–1050mitiuncertain
  3. Middle High Germanc. 1050–1350miteuncertain
  4. Germanc. 1650–presentmit‘with’uncertain
  5. Englishtodaymid

Although Middle English had a native preposition mid with this same meaning ("with"), it had fallen out of general use by the mid 1400s and survived into the modern English period only in sporadic use and the compounds midwife and theremid.

Today it means

adj Occupying a middle position; middle.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “mid”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *médʰi / mid

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