amongst
- 1Used to show that someone or something is mixed in with a group of separate people or things.
She felt most at home amongst the musicians backstage, even though she couldn't play a note.
Wild garlic grows amongst the bluebells along the shady edge of the wood.
Note
The sense of being mixed into a crowd goes back to Old English ongemang, from on, "in", and gemang, "an assemblage, a mingling". The ending came later: among took a genitive -s, giving amongs, then a -t that adds sound but no meaning. Edmund Spenser could clip it the other way, writing "mongst that blessed throng" in 1591.
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Origin
From amongs with an excrescent -t added, where amongs is among plus the genitive ending -s; by surface analysis it is among + -st. The root among comes from Old English ongemang, from on ("in") + gemang ("assemblage, mingling").