FromMiddle Englishmiddes,midst,myddest(“middle”), fromOld Englishmidde, reshaped in Middle English phrases likein middes(“in the middle”) by analogy with adverbs in-(e)s; also compare Old Englishonmiddan,tōmiddes. Forms in-(e)st are probably due to influence of superlatives.[1]
midst (pluralmidsts)
- (often literary) A place in themiddle of something;may be used of a literal or metaphorical location.
1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e.,Emma Orczy], “The Affair at the Novelty Theatre”, inThe Case of Miss Elliott, London:T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published1905,→OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909,OCLC11192831, quoted inThe Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia:Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in themidst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.
1995, Mary Ellen Pitts,Toward a Dialogue of Understandings: Loren Eiseley and the Critique of Science,page225:At dawn, in themidst of a mist that is both literal and the unformed shifting of thought, he encounters a young fox pup playfully shaking a bone.
2002, Nathan W. Schlueter, quotingMartin Luther King, Jr.,I Have a Dream, 1963, speech, quoted inOne Dream Or Two?: Justice in America and in the Thought of Martin Luther King, Jr.,page89:As he said in "I Have a Dream," the Negro "lives on a lonely island of poverty in themidst of a vast ocean of material prosperity."
place in the middle of something
midst
- (rare)Among, in the middle of;amidst.
Mildred comes home from work early only to discover her husband, Robert,midst of alewdaffair with their neighbor, Gladys.
