different between halfway vs midmost

English

Etymology

From Middle English halfwey, from Old English healfwe? (“half-way”), equivalent to half- +? way. Cognate with Saterland Frisian hoolfwais (“halfway”), Dutch halfweg (“halfway”), German halbwegs (“halfway”), Danish halvvejs (“halway”), Swedish halvvägs (“halfway”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /hæfwe?/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /h??f?we?/

Adverb

halfway (not comparable)

1. Half of the way between two points; midway.
2. Moderately; somewhat.

   a halfway decent place to sleep

Derived terms

• meet halfway

Translations

See also

• halfways

English

Etymology

From Old English medemest, superlative of medeme (“middling”), from Proto-Germanic *medumô; the word may be analysed as mid +? -most.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?dm??st/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?dmo?st/
• Hyphenation: mid?most

Adjective

midmost (not comparable)

1. In the exact middle, or nearest to the exact middle; middlemost
   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows:

     A wide half-circle of foam and glinting lights and shining shoulders of green water, the great weir closed the backwater from bank to bank, troubled all the quiet surface with twirling eddies and floating foam-streaks, and deadened all other sounds with its solemn and soothing rumble. In midmost of the stream, embraced in the weir's shimmering arm-spread, a small island lay anchored, fringed close with willow and silver birch and alder.

Translations