Etymology

In prepositional use, OE wið is primarily attested with senses of opposition, adjacency or reciprocity, but ME wið additionally takes on a range of functions that had in OE usually belonged to mid: the senses of ‘association, combination or union, instrumentality or means, attendant circumstances’ (OED). Influence from the ON cognate (cp. OIcel við), which has a similar semantic range, has been adduced (OED), but most prefer a native etymon (e.g. MED, TGD, GDS, Bj., McGee) and the sense development in the English word could be accounted for by wið taking over the uses of mid, owing to their existing semantic overlap and interchangeability in a number of phrases (see esp. Hittle 1901, and further Dance 2003: 458–9).   

PGmc Ancestor

*wiþra

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

við (with dat.) ‘against, towards, along with, with (instr.)’, (with acc.) ‘by, at, close to; at, to; together with’
(ONP við (2) (præp.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far við, viður-, Icel við, Norw ved, ODan withær, with, Dan ved, veder-, Sw vid, veder-

OE Cognate

wið (with acc.) ‘by, near, against, beside, at, through’, (with dat.) ‘from (separation), with (opposition), for, in return for, on condition of, beside, near, opposite’, (with gen.) ‘towards, to, at, against’

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

CCC3

Attestation

 Widespread in the appropriate senses in ME from the earliest texts (see MED, and for the early SWM material Dance 2003: 403, 458–9).

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 9, 32, 38 etc.; Pe 40, 183, 200 etc.; Cl 19, 58, 214 etc.; Pat 2, 24, 36 etc.; Erk 40, 48, 51 etc.; WA 49, 64, 82 etc.

Bibliography

MED with (prep.) , OED with (prep., adv., and conj.) , Dance with, de Vries við (2), Mag. við (3), AEW wið