among

among, amongst

1. Among is now roughly ten times more common than amongst. It is the oldest form, which gave rise to the by-forms amonges (14c, no longer in use) and among(e)st (16c). There is no demonstrable difference of meaning between the two forms, and the distribution is unclear except that amongst seems to be less common in AmE than in BrE. An older view, which Fowler (1926) followed, that amongst is commoner before a word beginning with a vowel, is not borne out by the evidence (the most common word following amongst, as with among, is in fact the). Examples: (among)

• The giants war among themselves —J. M. Coetzee, 1977

• There were a lot of young people among the temporary staff —Penelope Fitzgerald, 1980

• Britain also has the lowest level of welfare expenditure among the countries of the European Community —Times, 1985

• (amongst) They stood on the edges of the lamplight amongst the wattles by the creek —Peter Carey, 1988

• If a settled view is formed amongst voters that the additional money on the NHS has been wasted progressive politics will be in trouble for decades —Independent, 2007.

2. Among is much more often used than amongst in the expression among other things. This expression is strictly illogical, since among is inclusive and other is exclusive, but it is well established and usually causes no adverse comment. Perhaps it gets by on the coat-tails of the Latin equivalent inter alia, also self-contradictory but which few would venture to challenge.

3. For choice of among and between, see between ².