Being a rampant phenomicist, I like to invent and distribute new words. The difficulty in doing so is that unless the word's meaning is clear inherently, you have to get its use across by context. Since my domain name will come fairly well known, I thought I may as well choose an invented word whose meaning is clear without context: it's just a contraction of "in amidst", amidst being a nice word which should get used more often. Inamidst is hopefully even nicer.
The word "amidst" is only used by Shakespare once, in T.&C., I, iii. Chaucer used "amiddes" in his Treatise On The Astrolabe, as did Ovid in his Metamorphoses. The words "whatsoever", "heretofore", "wherewithal", "whereas", "inasmuch", and "insofar" are compounded in a similar style to inamidst. Technically, the in- prefix is redundant, but so is the "al" in "publically"—the mind and tounge seek euphony (counterview: 23:19:59 <cowan> I think it's just confusion with all the words that legitimately end in -ally).
Amidst's etymology, according to Webster, is OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a later addition, as in whilst, amongst, alongst. According to m-w: amid from Middle English amidde, from Old English onmiddan, from on + middan, dative of midde mid; amidst from Middle English amiddes, from amidde + -es -s.
Googlecounts on 2004-06: onmiddan: 42; on middan: 103; amidde: 196; amiddes: 190; on midden: 195; in amidst: 4,740; inamidst: 9.
Sean B. Palmer