among
/əˈmʌŋ/
preposition
Origin
Old English
on mang — in a crowd or mixture
Overview
Meaning Now
- In the middle of or surrounded by other things or people.
- Part of a group, class, or number of people or things.
Literal older meaning
in a crowd
Language path
Proto-Indo-European → Proto-Germanic → Old English → Middle English → English
Earliest form
onmang
Earliest period
Old English
Journey
The root 'mang' is related to 'mingle' and 'amongst'. It originally denoted being physically mixed within a crowd or collection of items.
Evolution
- Old English
onmang
“in the middle of”
Compound of 'on' + 'mang' (crowd, mingling).
- Early Middle English
amonges
“amidst”
Development of the adverbial genitive -es suffix.
- Late Middle English
among
“in the middle of”
Loss of the genitive 's' in the prepositional form.
Connections
Word parts
a-
prefix
on/in
-mong
root
crowd/mixing
Related across languages
Old Frisian
mong
in the middle of
Old Saxon
mang
crowd
Explore next
Related to among
External references use DefinedTerm semantics.