| 词组 | amid, amidst |
| 释义 | amid, amidst 1. Copperud 1970, 1980 tells us that amid and amidst are criticized as bookish, literary, or quaint by four commentators; Harper 1985 finds them out of fashion—formerly common but now "literary words" to be stricken in favor of among or in. This notion seems to have originated with Fowler 1926. There was probably little basis for Fowler's opinion in 1926; there is no basis whatsoever for its repetition by later commentators. The words are in frequent current use, as you will see from the examples given in section 3 below. 2. Fowler opines that amidst is more common than amid; Evans 1957 finds amid more common in American use and amidst in British use; Reader's Digest 1983 says amid is the more usual choice. Our evidence— mostly American—supports none of these generalizations. We find amidst somewhat more frequent before 1960, amid somewhat more frequent 1960-1980, and since 1980 the two words of about equal frequency. Both forms are in frequent use; you can use whichever sounds better to you. 3. Amid, amidst, among. A curious belief is expressed in variant terms by Evans 1957, Copperud 1970, Bernstein 1962, Bryson 1984, and Simon 1980 that amid and amidst should go with singular nouns (there is some disagreement whether the singular noun can be a collective noun or a mass noun or not) and among with plural nouns (or separable, enumerable, or countable items). The origin of this belief is obscure; it does not appear in Fowler's discussion of the words and does not seem to have concerned the 19th-century commentators. There may be some hint of an origin in Campbell 1776 and Murray 1795, who both object to among with indefinite pronouns that they deem singular. Yet, neither amid nor amidst is mentioned in their discussions. Simon's version of the distinction is this: "Among clearly pre-supposes a number of surrounding but separate entities ... ; whereas amid denotes a position in the middle of something larger but of a piece and not divisible..." Bernstein takes about the same tack: "'Among' means in the midst of countable things. When the things are not separable the word is 'amid' or 'amidst.'" Bryson is in essential agreement. Evans, however, makes the distinction on a different basis, saying that amid is more likely to be followed by a singular word and among by a plural. Copperud prefers amid with singular nouns that are not collectives. Thus, we may note some uncertainty among the commentators about just what it is they would have us observe. The feeling of uncertainty is heightened by Simon, who criticizes (at the instance of a correspondent) his own sentence beginning "Among richly homoerotic overtones"); he should have used amid, he says, but we are aware that his plural overtones would satisfy Evan's criterion. Simon is presumably basing his mea culpa on the notion of the inseparability of the overtones. You may suspect that a distinction based on criteria so elusive is not founded on actual usage—and indeed it is not. Amid and amidst are followed by both singular and plural nouns as well as by nouns that denote separable or countable items. Singular nouns with amid: • Amid such a world ... our ideals henceforth must find a home —Selected Papers of Bertrand Russell, 1927 • ... to reconcile, amid his womanizing, with his wife —Judith Crist, Saturday Rev., 2 Apr. 1977 • ... and amid a babble of goodnights the ladies came forward —Allen Tate, Prose, Fall 1971 • ... there is amid the garbage a steady supply of good writing —Jacques Barzun, Atlantic, December 1953 • Amid a snowstorm of press gossip —Penina Spiegel, US, 13 Aug. 1984 • ... worked on the steaming docks, amid the coal-dust —Van Wyck Brooks, The Flowering of New England, 1815-1865, rev. ed., 1946 Amidst with singular nouns: • ... she fled Cambodia amidst gunfire —Cable Neuhaus, People, 11 Mar. 1985 • Amidst the junk mail and the hate mail and the crank mail —Aristides, American Scholar, Autumn 1979 • He was merely walking amidst an inferior form of life —Richard Wright, Negro Digest, January 1947 • ... amidst an unlimited magnificence —Edmund Wilson, "The Ambiguity of Henry James," in American Harvest, ed. Allen Tate & John Peale Bishop, 1942 • ... where the last czar and his family had lived, uncomfortably, amidst too much furniture —John Steinbeck, Russian Journal, 1948 • Those eyes of his, that mouth amidst a stubble of beard —Ion L. Idriess, Madman's Island, 1938 Amid with plural nouns: • ... my plight amid complex issues —William Stafford, Writing the Australian Crawl, 1978 • Amid the partygoers at Lüchow's restaurant —People, 20 Sept. 1982 • ... resigned amid charges of misconduct —Elizabeth Drew, N.Y. Times Mag, 1 Oct. 1973 • Amid bulging wicker and pasteboard suitcases and bundles done up in cloth sat elderly men —Andy Logan, New Yorker, 12 May 1951 • ... amid scenes of riot and debauch —Times Literary Supp., 27 Feb. 1953 • There they all fell, amid yells and hissing curses and shrieks of pain —Liam O'Flaherty, The Informer, 1925 Amidst with plural nouns: • ... floating amidst the planets and stars —Evan Thomas, Time, 26 Nov. 1984 • Amidst visitors, orderlies and chatter, we listened gravely —T.R.B., New Republic, 19 Apr. 1954 • ... which still endure amidst the soulless ruins — Henry Miller, The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, 1945 • ... situated in palaces, amidst beautiful parks — Janet Flanner, New Yorker, 27 Oct. 1951 • ... amidst the cries of "Mazeltov! Mazeltov!" — Alfred Kazin, New Republic, 5 Feb. 1945 • ... amidst the lifeless personages who surround her —Robert Pick, Saturday Rev., 31 Mar. 1945 • ... amidst all the proposed new subsidies —Michael Kinsley, Harper's, January 1983 Another frequent construction finds amid or amidst with a collective noun or indefinite pronoun followed by a preposition having a plural noun as its object: • ... amidst a crackle of blue sparks —A. J. Cronin, The Green Years, 1944 • ... amid some of the richest and most detailed period sets —Judith Crist, The Washingtonian, November 1970 • ... amidst an astonishing variety of other pandemics —John Wilkinson, A Center Occasional Paper, December 1970 • Amid such a welter of uncertainties —Sir James Mountford, British Universities, 1966 • ... amid a pandemonium of cheers —John Buchan, Castle Gay, 1930 We can thus see that actual usage does not follow the varying distinctions about amid and amidst the commentators make, and that their use is not restricted to "literary" or "quaint" publications. You will also note that among can be substituted for amid or amidst in very few of the examples. The fact is that among and amid (amidst) tend to seek different contexts anyway, and so the distinction the commentators are trying to urge is not only factitious but largely superfluous. The invocation of among by commentators on amid and amidst seems to be related to the use of among with certain singular nouns and indefinite pronouns. This subject is treated at among 2. |
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