Among vs. Amongst

Question

As I read an actual book on Lincoln, wrote in UK., I saw that amongst was always used by the author & never among.

So I wonder if now in the US. some of us would or do use "amongst" as in UK they still do... (I don't think so, but I'd like to be 100% sure of my belief). Thank you for your feed back.

This question is new because its intent is just on the point to know exactly if currently in America - mostly US (as I think in Eastern Canada it could be like in UK) - we say "amongst"...

Possible duplicate of What is the distinction between "among" and "amongst"? Also Can “among” and “amongst” have different contextual meanings? and probably others. — FumbleFingers, Mar 09 '16 at 14:54
It's not a question of contextual meaning but merely of vocabulary when among = amongst in oral speech. — DAVE, Mar 09 '16 at 15:16
As Josh61 points out in his answer, at the level of semantics/syntax, There is no difference between them. And as regards AmE speakers "extending" their vocabulary and imposing some new distinction, I'd say the chances of that are about zero. — FumbleFingers, Mar 09 '16 at 15:33

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

According to the grammatist amongst is rare in AmE:

Amongst is a variant of among. There is no difference between them. While amongst is fairly common—though still rare compared to among—in British, Australian, and Canadian English, it is rare in American English and may even have an archaic ring.

The -st at the end of amongst is a holdover from a period of English in which s sounds were added to words (usually nouns) to make adverbs. Other examples of words inflected this way include always, once, whence, and unawares, and there are a few other -st adverbs such as whilst and amidst.

From Oxford blog:

As the table shows, amongst is comparatively rare in US English but, with nearly 10,000 instances, this spelling is by no means unknown across the water. However, many authorities (such as Garner’s Modern American Usage) and language blogs state that, in US English, amongst is now seen as old-fashioned, and even ‘pretentious’. If you are a US English speaker, therefore, and you don’t want to come across to your audience as out of date or, heaven forbid, linguistically la-di-da, then it’s advisable to opt for among.

Thanks, it's what I thought but now with your stats. I can be 20000% sure :) — DAVE, Mar 09 '16 at 15:44
With those stats, he might be expected to check such an obvious candidate for being a duplicate. In fact, as it had already been flagged as such, I'm flagging the answer. — Edwin Ashworth, Mar 09 '16 at 17:24

Among vs. Amongst

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