betweenprep.adv.n.

Etymology: The modern between combines two earlier forms: α. Old English bi- , betwéonum , etc., Middle English bitwenen , -twene ; β. Old English bi- , betwéon , etc., Middle English bitwēn ; see be- prefix. In betwéonum , Mercian betwínum , the second element represents an original Old English dative *twîhnum , *tweohnum . In betwéon (only a northern form, Rushworth Gosp. bi- , betwion , betweon , Lindisfarne bi- , betuien , bitwén , Durham Ritual bitwien , -twén , -twín ), the second element points back, according to Sievers, through earlier *twîhen , *twîhon , to an original Old English accusative twîhn (compare bituichn in Erfurt Gloss.). These, *twîhnum , *twîhn , answer respectively to Gothic tweihnaim dative plural, and tweihna accusative plural neuter, of the distributive numeral tweih-nai ‘two each’, a derivative of twa two adj., n., and adv. (= Latin bīnī, for *dvīnī ‘two each’), which appears also, but with the simple sense of ‘two’ (nominative masculine), in Old Saxon and Old Frisian twêne, Old High German, Middle High German zwêne (early modern German zween). Betwéonum, later betwéonan, gave the prevailing Middle English form bitwenen, reduced before a consonant, and at length generally, to bitwene; bitwen was mostly northern. But after 1400, when final -e became mute, and was omitted in writing, or retained only as a sign of a preceding long vowel, both forms necessarily coalesced in betwene (= betwēn), whence modern between. In Old English the original construction was bi sǽm twéonum, lit. ‘by seas twain’; thence through constructions like frið freondum bi twéon ‘peace friends between,’ bi twéonum, bi twéon coalesced into prepositions. (Compare the history of to(us)-ward, to-ward, toward.) Intimately related to between , alike in their elements, and in the process by which these coalesced, are its synonyms betwixt prep. and adv., in Middle English betwix , and betwixen prep., bitwih prep., bitwihen prep., bitweies prep. Bitwih was actually, in its origin, a doublet of Old English betwéon, and betwihen an expansion of that, on the analogy of betweonen. Betwixen and betwix were a parallel pair, formed on the Old Germanic adjective twiski- ‘two-fold’. (See Sievers Misc. zur Ags. Gram. §329.) Bitwih died a1100, bitwihena1300, betwixena1500; betwixt is now archaic, between is the living word.