() From Middle English middel-erde, from Old English middangeard, anglicized from Old Norse miðgarðr, itself from Proto-Germanic *medja-gardaz, combined from Proto-Indo-European *medhyo (“middle”) and Proto-Indo-European *ghartos (“enclosure”). Cognate with Danish and Swedish Midgård, Norwegian Midgard or Midgård. The term represents an old Germanic name for our world, the places inhabited by humans, with the literal meaning "middle enclosure".