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

Translations

Earth — see Earth

Midgard — see Midgard

Middle-earth — see Middle-earth

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