different between addle vs middle

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ.d?l/
• Rhymes: -æd?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English addlen, adlen, from Old English edl?an (“reward, pay-back”), edl?anian (“to reward, recompense”); or more likely, from Old Norse ?ðlask (“to gain possession of property”), from ?ðal (“owndom, property”).

Verb

addle (third-person singular simple present addles, present participle addling, simple past and past participle addled)

1. (provincial, Northern England) To earn, earn by labor; earn money or one's living.
2. (provincial, Northern England) To thrive or grow; to ripen.
   • 1573, Thomas Tusser, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry

     Kill ivy, or else tree will addle no more.

Etymology 2

From Middle English adel (“rotten”), from Old English adel, adela (“mire, pool, liquid excrement”), from Proto-Germanic *adalaz, *adalô (“cattle urine, liquid manure”). Akin to Scots adill, North Frisian ethel (“urine”), Saterland Frisian adel "dung", Middle Low German adele "mud, liquid manure" (Dutch aal "puddle"), Old Swedish adel "urine", Bavarian Adel (“liquid manure”).

Adjective

addle (comparative more addle, superlative most addle)

1. Having lost the power of development, and become rotten; putrid.

2. (by extension) Unfruitful or confused; muddled.
   • (prologue)

     Thus far the poet; but his brains grow addle,

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

addle (plural addles)

1. (obsolete) Liquid filth; mire.
2. (provincial) Lees; dregs.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wright to this entry?)

Verb

addle (third-person singular simple present addles, present participle addling, simple past and past participle addled)

1. To make addle; to grow addle; to muddle
   • 1782, William Cowper, Pairing Time Anticipated

     Their eggs were addled.

   • 2000, Quentin Skinner, “The Adviser to Princes”, in Nigel Warburton; Jon Pike; Derek Matravers, Reading Political Philosophy: Machiavelli to Mill, Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge in association with The Open University, 978-0-415-21196-3, page 30:

     [Niccolò] Machiavelli had received an early lesson in the value of addling men's brains. […] [A] talent for addling men's brains is part of the armoury of any successful prince […] .

2. To cause fertilised eggs to lose viability, by killing the developing embryo within through shaking, piercing, freezing or oiling, without breaking the shell.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

addle (plural addles)

1. A foolish or dull-witted fellow.

Anagrams

• daled, dedal, laded

English

Alternative forms

• myddle (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English middel, from Old English middel, middle (“middle, centre, waist”), from Proto-Germanic *midl?, *midil?, *medal? (“middle”), a diminutive of Proto-Germanic *midj? (“middle, midst”) (compare *midjaz (“mid, middle”, adjective)), from Proto-Indo-European *méd?yos (“between, in the middle, middle”). Cognate with West Frisian middel, Dutch middel, German mittel (“middle”, adjective), German Mittel (“middle, means”, noun), Danish middel (“means, agent, medicine”). Related also to Swedish medel (“means, medium”), Icelandic meðal (“means, medicine”). See also mid.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?m?d?l/, [?m?.???]
• (UK) IPA^(key): /?m?d?l/, [?m?.d??], [?m?.d?]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /?m?d?l/, [?m??.d??], [?m??.d?], [?m??.?-]
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /?m?d?l/, [?m?.d?(?)], [?m?.?-]
• Rhymes: -?d?l

Noun

middle (plural middles)

1. A centre, midpoint.

2. The part between the beginning and the end.

3. (cricket) The middle stump.
4. The central part of a human body; the waist.
   • Fasting In A Fast World

     If I have a diet plan and stick to it, it is easy for me to have control over my middle.

5. (grammar) The middle voice.

Synonyms

• (centre): centre, center, midpoint; see also Thesaurus:midpoint
• (part between the beginning and the end): centre, center, midst

Translations

Adjective

middle (not comparable)

1. Located in the middle; in between.

   the middle point

   middle name, Middle English, Middle Ages

2. Central.
3. (grammar) Pertaining to the middle voice.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:intermediate

Translations

Derived terms

Related terms

• mid-
• middle- (in compounds; not a prefix)
• middling

Verb

middle (third-person singular simple present middles, present participle middling, simple past and past participle middled)

1. (obsolete) To take a middle view of. [17th–18th c.]
   • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, Letter 27:

     And now, to middle the matter between both, it is pity, that the man they favour has not that sort of merit which a person of a mind so delicate as that of Miss Harlowe might reasonably expect in a husband.

2. (obsolete, nautical, transitive) To double (a rope) into two equal portions; to fold in the middle. [19th c.]

Middle English

Adjective

middle

1. inflection of middel:
   1. weak singular
   2. strong/weak plural