'mongstprep.
/mʌŋst/, U.S. /məŋst/, Caribbean English /mʌŋ(k)s/ poetic and regional (chiefly Caribbean and U.S., esp. in African-American usage).
= amongst prep.
ΚΠ
1567 T. Drant tr. Horace Pistles in tr. Horace Arte of Poetrie sig. Hiij Mongst so much toyle, and such a coyle, Suche soking carke, and spyte.
a1593 C. Marlowe Tragicall Hist. Faustus (1604) sig. D3 Faustus is feasted mongst his noblemen.
1601 W. Shakespeare Phoenix & Turtle in R. Chester Loves Martyr 170 Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.
1645 J. Milton L'Allegro in Poems 30 'Mongst horrid shapes, and shreiks, and sights unholy.
1675 J. Smith Christian Relig. Appeal ii. 45 But they shall see her, in her native dress, Such as she is 'mongst shades, pale, sanguinless.
1707 I. Watts Hymns (1751) i. xxxix. 28 And 'mongst a thousand tender Thoughts [can] Her Suckling have no Room?
1759 B. Martin Nat. Hist. Eng. II. 116 We antiently instile Mongst sundry other Things, a Wonder of our Isle.
1813 W. Scott Rokeby vi. xxxiii As mute as fox 'mongst mangling hounds.
1871 F. T. Palgrave Lyrical Poems 38 'Mongst all perfections the most perfect wife.
1884 ‘M. Twain’ Adventures Huckleberry Finn viii I..swum more'n half way acrost de river, en got in 'mongst de drift-wood.
1904 Sporting News (Launceston, Tasmania) 27 Aug. 2/8 Then raked through all our pockets, 'mongst tobacco, string, and grease.
1907 S. E. White Arizona Nights (U.K. ed.) iii. iv. 290 We can make little pack trips off in the hills when she gets too hot—up there by Deerskin Meadows 'mongst the high peaks.
1990 R. Blount First Hubby 139 I probly would've risked my black ass stridin' in 'mongst a whole bunch of armed shit-fer-sense rednecks.
2002 M. Bishop in B. M. Thomsen Amer. Fantasy Trad. iii. 579 The Spirit went off her cause strife had fallen mongst the people. She had faith aplenty.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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prep.1567