Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
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Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

While/among/amid vs whilst/amongst/amidst

While/among/amid vs whilst/amongst/amidst 

Which of the foregoing variants is older?

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Comments

While, among, and amid are much older. I quote:

Whiles is recorded from early 13c.; whilst is from late 14c., with excrescent -st as in amongst, amidst.

amongst - a variant of among, mid-13c., amonges, from among with adverbial genitive. Parasitic -t first attested 16c

amidst - a variant of amid with adverbial gen. -s and parasitic -t. Amidde became amyddes (13c.) and acquired a -t by 1560s, probably by association with superlatives in -st.

AnWulf Sep-14-2011

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Thank you.

sigurd Sep-20-2011

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