中古英语的 bitwene 源自古英语的 betweonum，在默西亚方言中为 betwinum，意思是“在分隔的空间中、在中间、在……之中、在……之列；轮流”。它由 bi-（意为“在……旁边”或“通过”，参见 by）和 tweonum（是 *tweon 的与格复数形式，意为“两者各自”，类似于哥特语的 tweih-nai，同样表示“两者各自”；其词源可追溯至原始印欧语根 *dwo-，意为“二”）。
Between is literally applicable only to two objects; but it may be and commonly is used of more than two where they are spoken of distributively, or so that they can be thought of as divided into two parts or categories, or with reference to the action or being of each individually as compared with that of any other or all the others. When more than two objects are spoken of collectively or in divisibly, among is the proper word. [Century Dictionary]
Between 这个词字面上只适用于两个对象；但在实际使用中，它也常被用来描述三个或更多对象，尤其是当这些对象被视为分配式或可以被看作是分成两部分或类别时，或者当我们关注每个对象的动作或状态时（与其他对象进行比较）。而当多个对象被整体或不可分割地提及时，使用 among 更为恰当。[《世纪词典》]
In all senses, between has been from its earliest appearance, extended to more than two. [OED]
在所有意义上，between 从一开始就被扩展用于两个以上的对象。[《牛津英语词典》]
短语 Between a rock and a hard place（“陷入困境，进退两难”）起源于20世纪40年代，最初是牛仔俚语（早期表达为 between the beetle (hammer) and the block，流行于19世纪末）。而 Between-whiles（“间歇地”）则出现在17世纪70年代。
