"be" meaning in Old English

See be in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Preposition

IPA: /be/
Etymology: From Proto-Germanic *bi. Etymology templates: {{inh|ang|gem-pro|*bi}} Proto-Germanic *bi Head templates: {{head|ang|preposition|head=|sort=}} be, {{ang-prep}} be
  1. about (concerning)
    Sense id: en-be-ang-prep-RlY~ijUw
  2. by, in various senses:
    near or next to
    Sense id: en-be-ang-prep-OjnMsM7g
  3. by, in various senses:
    not later than
    Sense id: en-be-ang-prep-BwbP8bsO
  4. by, in various senses:
    based on, according to
    Sense id: en-be-ang-prep-~wBB3GIf Categories (other): Old English entries with incorrect language header, Old English prepositions Disambiguation of Old English entries with incorrect language header: 2 12 2 79 4 Disambiguation of Old English prepositions: 8 18 8 57 10
  5. for, in the account of
    Sense id: en-be-ang-prep-PkEWbS71
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: be-, bī

Download JSON data for be meaning in Old English (2.4kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ang",
        "2": "gem-pro",
        "3": "*bi"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-Germanic *bi",
      "name": "inh"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Proto-Germanic *bi.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ang",
        "2": "preposition",
        "head": "",
        "sort": ""
      },
      "expansion": "be",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "be",
      "name": "ang-prep"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Old English",
  "lang_code": "ang",
  "pos": "prep",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "be-"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "bī"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "english": "How about food? How much dost thou desire that?",
          "text": "late 9th century, King Alfred's translation of Saint Augustine's Soliloquies\nHū be mete? hū swīðe lyst þē þæs?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "late 10th century, Ælfric's Lives of Saints\nIċ wāt eall be þām.\nI know all about that.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "about (concerning)"
      ],
      "id": "en-be-ang-prep-RlY~ijUw",
      "links": [
        [
          "about",
          "about"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "by, in various senses:",
        "near or next to"
      ],
      "id": "en-be-ang-prep-OjnMsM7g",
      "links": [
        [
          "by",
          "by"
        ],
        [
          "near",
          "near"
        ],
        [
          "next to",
          "next to"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "by, in various senses:",
        "not later than"
      ],
      "id": "en-be-ang-prep-BwbP8bsO",
      "links": [
        [
          "by",
          "by"
        ],
        [
          "later",
          "later"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "2 12 2 79 4",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Old English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "8 18 8 57 10",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Old English prepositions",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "by, in various senses:",
        "based on, according to"
      ],
      "id": "en-be-ang-prep-~wBB3GIf",
      "links": [
        [
          "by",
          "by"
        ],
        [
          "based on",
          "based on"
        ],
        [
          "according to",
          "according to"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "english": "So likewise those unrighteous judges who pervert their judgments, always for gain, and not for justice, and always offer their justice for sale, and thus sell themselves for the sake of money,...",
          "text": "late 10th century, Ælfric, \"Passion of St.Alban, Martyr\"\nEall swa þa unriht-wisan deman þe heora domas awendað, æfre be þam sceattum na be soðfæstnysse and habbað æfre to cepe heora soðfæstnysse, and swa hi sylfe syllað wið sceattum...",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "for, in the account of"
      ],
      "id": "en-be-ang-prep-PkEWbS71",
      "links": [
        [
          "for",
          "for"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/be/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "be"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "Old English entries with incorrect language header",
    "Old English lemmas",
    "Old English prepositions",
    "Old English terms derived from Proto-Germanic",
    "Old English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic",
    "Old English terms with IPA pronunciation"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ang",
        "2": "gem-pro",
        "3": "*bi"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-Germanic *bi",
      "name": "inh"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Proto-Germanic *bi.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ang",
        "2": "preposition",
        "head": "",
        "sort": ""
      },
      "expansion": "be",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "be",
      "name": "ang-prep"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Old English",
  "lang_code": "ang",
  "pos": "prep",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "be-"
    },
    {
      "word": "bī"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Old English terms with quotations",
        "Old English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "english": "How about food? How much dost thou desire that?",
          "text": "late 9th century, King Alfred's translation of Saint Augustine's Soliloquies\nHū be mete? hū swīðe lyst þē þæs?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "late 10th century, Ælfric's Lives of Saints\nIċ wāt eall be þām.\nI know all about that.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "about (concerning)"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "about",
          "about"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "by, in various senses:",
        "near or next to"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "by",
          "by"
        ],
        [
          "near",
          "near"
        ],
        [
          "next to",
          "next to"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "by, in various senses:",
        "not later than"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "by",
          "by"
        ],
        [
          "later",
          "later"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "by, in various senses:",
        "based on, according to"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "by",
          "by"
        ],
        [
          "based on",
          "based on"
        ],
        [
          "according to",
          "according to"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Old English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "english": "So likewise those unrighteous judges who pervert their judgments, always for gain, and not for justice, and always offer their justice for sale, and thus sell themselves for the sake of money,...",
          "text": "late 10th century, Ælfric, \"Passion of St.Alban, Martyr\"\nEall swa þa unriht-wisan deman þe heora domas awendað, æfre be þam sceattum na be soðfæstnysse and habbað æfre to cepe heora soðfæstnysse, and swa hi sylfe syllað wið sceattum...",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "for, in the account of"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "for",
          "for"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/be/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "be"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable Old English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.