Middle Earth
See also: middle earth, middle-earth, Middle-earth, and Middle-Earth
English
Alternative forms
- middle earth, middle-earth, Middle-earth, Middle-Earth
Etymology
From Middle English middelerthe, myddyl erthe; an alteration of earlier middel-erde, middelerd; in turn an alteration of earlier middenerd; from Old English middaneard (“Middle Earth”), variant of middanġeard (“Earth, the world”, literally “the middle yard, enclosure, or realm”) mis- or reinterpreting its meaning, from Proto-Germanic *midjagardaz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *medhyo (“middle”) and Proto-Indo-European *ghartos (“enclosure”). Cognate with Norwegian & English Midgard (q.v.) and Danish, Norwegian, & Swedish Midgård.
Proper noun
Middle Earth
- (archaic) The Earth, (chiefly Norse mythology) synonym for Midgard, the world of traditional Germanic cosmology, conceived as a realm between heaven (Asgard) and hell (Niflheim).
- (fiction) Alternative form of Middle-earth: the setting of the Lord of the Rings series.
Related terms
- middelerd
- middenerd
- Midgard
Translations
Earth — see Earth
Midgard — see Midgard
Middle-earth — see Middle-earth