FromMiddle Englishbitwixe, fromOld Englishbetweox, fromProto-Germanic*twiskaz(“twofold, double”), fromProto-Indo-European*dwís(“twice, doubly; in two”). Bysurface analysis,be-(“by, near, around”) +twixt(“between”). CompareSaterland Frisiantwiske(“between”),Dutchtussen,Germanzwischen.
betwixt
- (literary or archaic)Between.
c.1603–1604 (date written),William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act V, scene i]:There was some speech of marriage /Betwixt myself and her.
1818 July 25,Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym;Walter Scott], “I. Being Introductory.”, inTales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] forArchibald Constable and Company,→OCLC,page13:The times have changed in nothing more (we follow as we were wont the manuscript of Peter Pattieson,) than in the rapid conveyance of intelligence and communicationbetwixt one part of Scotland and another.
[1898],J[ohn] Meade Falkner,Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.:Jonathan Cape, published1934,→OCLC:When I saw the coffin I knew that I was respited, for, as I judged, there was space between it and the wall behind enough to contain my little carcass; and in a second I had put out the candle, scrambled up the shelves, half-stunned my senses with dashing my head against the roof, and squeezed my bodybetwixt wall and coffin.
2011, Felix Hagan, “Vengeance On My Mind”, inDawn Breaks, the Monster Wakes...:And praying to the Gods beneath, I stuck my dirkbetwixt my teeth and drew my sabre from its sheath.
