Atween

Part of speech: preposition, adverb

Definitions

1. In or along the space separating two things or people
2. Situated in the middle or interval of two points, objects, or boundaries
3. Occupying the position or gap that lies amid two distinct entities or locations

Etymology: "Atween" is a dialect or poetic form of "between," and its history is essentially that of a prefix attached to an old number. The "a-" is a prefix that Middle English speakers attached to words, and the "twain" is the old word for "two," so the whole thing literally means something like "in two" or "on two sides." The "between" form contains the same idea, with "be-" serving the same role as "a-" and "tween" carrying the twain sense. The spelling "atween" reflects how the word was pronounced in speech, dropping the final consonant of "between" and blending it into a shorter, more rustic-sounding form. It belongs to the same family of forms as "atwixt," which likewise preserves the earlier idea of standing between two things.

Synonyms: between