释义 |
middle earthn.Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: middle adj., earth n.1 Etymology: < middle adj. + earth n.1 In sense 1 after middle-erd n. Compare earlier middenerd n., and later mid-earth n.In sea of middle earth after post-classical Latin mare Mediterraneum (see Mediterranean adj. and n.). For the β. forms (chiefly restricted to late Middle English from northern, east midland, and East Anglian counties and to Scots) see discussion s.v. earth n.1 and note s.v. middle-erd n.; occasional forms like medyll ȝard, middle yorde, myddell yarde, probably show alteration of the second element after yard n.1 the world > the universe > planet > primary planet > earth > [noun] > as centre of universe α. c1300 (?a1200) Laȝamon (Otho) 7205 He þohte to bi-winne..al þe middelerþes [c1275 Calig. middel-eærdes] lond. c1300 (?a1200) Laȝamon (Otho) 9066 Com a þisse middilherþe [c1275 Calig. middel ærde] hone maidenes sune. a1393 J. Gower (Fairf.) vii. 287 (MED) The moiste dropes of the reyn Descenden into Middilerthe. a1400 (a1325) (Vesp.) 8003 (MED) Bituix þe midel erth and þe lift. a1450 (1885) 50 Fadir, what may þis meruaylle mene? Wher-to made god medilerth and man? 1522 (de Worde) (1909) sig. A.v All mery medell erthe maketh mencyon of me. 1602 W. Watson 238 O monster of mankinde fitter for hell, then middle earth. 1602 W. Shakespeare v. v. 79 I smell a man of middle earth. 1691 R. Kirk (1933) 69 So they are seen to carrie the..coffin..among the midle-earth men to the grave. 1813 W. Scott i. ix. 26 That maid is born of middle earth, And may of man be won. 1819 G. Crabbe I. x. 263 A kind of beings who are never found On middle-earth, but grow on fairy-ground. 1860 N. Hawthorne II. xiii. 143 It is difficult to imagine it [sc. Catholicism] a contrivance of mere man. Its mighty machinery was forged and put together, not on middle earth, but either above or below. 1922 E. R. Eddison xiv. 205 At length when winter was gone in middle earth, and the spring far spent, back came that last little martlet. a1937 J. R. R. Tolkien Ambarkanta in C. Tolkien (1986) 236 In the North and South..Middle-earth extends nigh to the Walls of the World. 1951 W. H. Auden (1952) 58 What high immortals do in mirth Is life and death on Middle Earth. 1954 J. R. R. Tolkien Prologue 12 Hobbits had..lived quietly in Middle-earth for many long years. 1992 Feb. 6/1 Elements of traditional fantasy role-playing games..which have roots in Tolkien's Middle-earth tales. β. c1400 in D. Embree & E. Urquhart (1991) 85 Now is non mysprowd squier in alle þis mydil-ȝerd [c1330 middel erd], Bot he bere a long babel abowt and a longe berd.c1475 (a1325) Ipotis (Brome) 312 in L. T. Smith (1886) 35 Whan thow comyst yn to ye medyll ȝard [c1390 Vernon middel-ert], A vyrgyn schall be borne be-lyve.a1522 G. Douglas tr. Virgil (1959) vi. viii. 11 Thar saw he als, with huge greyt and murnyng In mydlerd oft menyt, thir Troianys.1588 in (1833) I. ii. 164 How he wes careit away with thame out of middil-eird.1607 (?a1425) (Harl. 2124) i. 74 I hope for all middle-yorde [1591 Huntington myddylarde, 1592 BL Add. myddellyarde, 1604 Bodl. middell land] you will not slaye your childe.1710 T. Ruddiman in G. Douglas tr. Virgil (new ed.) Gloss. Myddil erd, a phrase yet in use in the North of Scotland among old people, by which they understand this earth in which we live, in opposition to the grave: Thus they say, There's no man in middle erd is able to do it.1768 A. Ross i. 54 This gate she cud na lang in midlert be.1818 Oct. 329 Having narrowly escaped thrice being confirmed in her fairy state, she visited her friends on this ‘middle eard’, with whom she dwelt for seven years, disclosing the manners and explaining the customs of the Fairy Land.1897 W. Beatty xxx She's ower thick wi' the Auld Ane and the folk that dwell in the middle erd.the world > the earth > water > sea or ocean > specific seas > [noun] > Mediterranean Sea a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden (St. John's Cambr.) (1865) I. 53 (MED) Þe grete see of myddel erþe bygynneþ in þe west at Hercules pilers. a1513 R. Fabyan (1516) I. lxxvii. f. xxx In the South see of myddell Erth. 1555 W. Waterman tr. J. Boemus i. iii. 34 The floude of Nilus..passeth into the middle earth sea, with seuen armes. 1593 J. Norden i. 8 The forme of this land is Trianguler, much like Cicilia an Island in the middle-earth sea. 1600 R. Chambers 12 The breadth betwixt Iordan, and the middle earth sea, is in some places sixteene miles, in other eighteene. the world > the earth > structure of the earth > [noun] > geosphere > centrosphere or core a1592 R. Greene (1905) xvii. 245 Men that dote on wealth, And rent the bowels of the middle earth: For coine. 1613 S. Purchas vii. ii. 663 So would those good men drowne a great part of the African and American World..by their imagined middle-earth Ocean. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < n.c1300 |