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''betwixt'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260913123656-00-⌔

betwixt - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Preposition

betwixt

  • (literary or archaic) Between.
    • ✤ Synonyms: (obsolete except UK, dialectal) atwixt; twixt, ‘twixt
    • ✤ There was some speech of marriage/Betwixt myself and her.1
    • ✤ The times have changed in nothing more (we follow as we were wont the manuscript of Peter Pattieson,) than in the rapid conveyance of intelligence and communication betwixt one part of Scotland and another.2
    • ✤ When I saw the coffin I knew that I was respited, for, as I judged, there was space between it and the wall behind enough to contain my little carcass; and in a second I had put out the candle, scrambled up the shelves, half-stunned my senses with dashing my head against the roof, and squeezed my body betwixt wall and coffin.3
    • ✤ It cannot be denied that the devolutions of the title to the house in issue have been unusual, and are not free from challenge. In a contest betwixt legal titles, instruments of writing thereabout must often be strictly construed, and that which may be called the real intent of the makers is sometimes defeated. But this[case] does not demand a technical application of the rules of law governing the devolution of land titles. Only a contract is in issue here.4
    • ✤ And praying to the Gods beneath, I stuck my dirk betwixt my teeth and drew my sabre from its sheath.5

Etymology

From Middle English bitwixe, from Old English betweox, from Proto-Germanic ﹡twiskaz (“twofold, double”), from Proto-Indo-European ﹡dwís (“twice, doubly; in two”). By surface analysis, be- (“by, near, around”) +‎ twixt (“between”). Compare Saterland Frisian twiske (“between”), Dutch tussen, German zwischen.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /bɪˈtwɪkst/
  • (General American) IPA: /bəˈtwɪkst/
  • Audio (General American): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -ɪkst
  • Hyphenation: be‧twixt

Printed 2026-09-13.

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Footnotes

  1. c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]: ↩

  2. 1818 July 25, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], “I. Being Introductory.”, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC, page 13: ↩

  3. [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC: ↩

  4. 1915, “102 S. C. 313. Etheredge et al. v. Ætna Ins. Co. (No. 9216.) (Supreme Court of South Carolina. Oct. 20, 1915.)”, in The Southeastern Reporter ‎, volume 86, West Publishing Company, page 689: ↩

  5. 2011, Felix Hagan, “Vengeance On My Mind”, in Dawn Breaks, the Monster Wakes…: ↩