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Middle

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middle¹

  • /ˈmɪdl̩/ UK
  • [ˈmɪ.dəɫ] UK
  • [ˈmɪ.dʊ] UK
  • [ˈmɨdl̩] General South African
  • /ˈmɪdl̩/ US
  • [ˈmɪ.ɾɫ̩] US
  • /ˈmɪdəl/ Australia
  • [ˈmɪ̝.dəɫ] Australia
  • [ˈmɪ̝.dʊ] Australia
  • [ˈmɪ̝.ɾ-] Australia
  • /ˈmɘdɘl/ New Zealand
  • [ˈmə.dɯ(ɫ)] New Zealand
  • [ˈmə.ɾ-] New Zealand

Rhymes with -ɪdəl

Where it comes from

Etymology tree

Proto-Germanic *midjō

Proto-Germanic *-ilą

Proto-Germanic *midlą

Old English middel

Middle English myddel

English middle

From Middle English myddel, middel, from Old English middel (“middle, centre, waist”), from Proto-Germanic *midlą, *midilą, *medalą (“middle”), a diminutive of Proto-Germanic *midjō (“middle, midst”) (compare *midjaz (“mid, middle”, adjective)), from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“between, in the middle, middle”).

Cognates

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Middel (“middle”), West Frisian mul (“middle”), Dutch middel (“means; medicine, cure”), German mittel (“middle”, adjective), Mittel (“means; medicament, remedy”, noun), Luxembourgish Mëttel (“means, method; medicament”), Vilamovian mytuł (“middle”), Yiddish מיטל (mitl, “middle”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk middel (“means”), Icelandic meðal (“average; means, medicine”), Swedish medel (“average, mean, middle”). See also mid.

noun middles · myddle

  1. A centre, midpoint. The middle of a circle is the point which has the same distance to every point of circle.
  2. The part between the beginning and the end. I woke up in the middle of the night.
  3. The middle stump.
  4. The central part of a human body; the waist. If I have a diet plan and stick to it, it is easy for me to have control over my middle.
  5. The middle voice.
  6. the center of the political spectrum. As part of his successful re-election strategy, Clinton began governing from the middle.
  7. An essay on social or literary issues in a newspaper or magazine, originally placed between the leading articles and the reviews. ‘Did you see the Spec. had a middle on “Rural Tenacities” last week. That was all Huckley.’

Similar: center, midpoint

adjective middlemost · middlest · myddle

  1. no comparative Located in the middle; in between. the middle point
  2. no comparative Central.
  3. no comparative Pertaining to the middle voice.

verb middles · middling · middled · myddle

  1. obsolete, transitive To take a middle view of. And now, to middle the matter between both, it is pity, that the man they favour has not that sort of merit which a person of a mind so delicate as that of Miss Harlowe might reasonably expect in a husband.
  2. obsolete, transitive To double (a rope) into two equal portions; to fold in the middle.
  3. transitive To strike (the ball) with the middle portion of the face of the bat.

Middle²

proper noun

  1. A sheading of the Isle of Man.

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