beatan

Forms

bēatan (third-person singular present bīett, past singular bēot, past plural bēoton)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *bautan, from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to beat”).^[1][2] Its nearest relatives are Old Norse bauta (“to beat”), Old High German bōzan and Middle High German bōzen.^[2][3][4]

Orel calls the verb of unknown origin.^[2] Köbler derives it from Proto-Indo-European *bʰā̆ud- (“to strike, push”), an extension of *bʰā̆u- of the same meaning.^[4] Holthausen groups it with Middle Low German and Old Norse nouns for a bundle of flax and a log, and with Irish words.^[3]

It is a strong verb of the seventh class.^[5] Its past singular ⟨bēot⟩ goes back to the reduplicated past *bebaut, which lost its reduplication before giving ⟨bēot⟩, while Proto-Germanic /au/ appears as ⟨ēa⟩ in the present.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded in the Corpus Glossary (s. ix¹), where the participle gebeaten glosses Latin “batuitum”, “beaten”.^[7][8] In Bald's Leechbook (s. x med.) it is used of herbs pounded for a poultice: rudan wið rysele gemenged & gebeaten “rue mixed with fat and beaten”.^[9][8]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller translate it “beat, strike, lash, dash, hurt”, rendering Latin “percutere”, “verberare” and “caedere”, and give a second sense, to beat with the feet, tread: in Beowulf the horse burhstede bēateð “stamps the courtyard”.^[10][5] In the poems waves and streams beat the shore, and in Daniel the fire did not harm the youths.^[10] Toller's Supplement adds the instrument with mid and an intransitive use “to beat on”, of beating one's breast.^[11]

The word lived on as Middle English beten, first recorded in the early thirteenth century, now beat.^[12][13]

Timeline

• s. ix¹ – gebeaten glossing “batuitum” in the Corpus Glossary.^[7][8]
• s. x med. – herbs gebeaten for a poultice in Bald's Leechbook.^[9][8]
• s. x² – streamas staþu beatað “streams beat the shores” in an Exeter Book riddle.^[14][8]
• s. x/xi – the horse that tramps the courtyard in the Beowulf manuscript.^[15][5]
• c. 1225 – Middle English ibeaten in the Life of St Juliana.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. to beat, strike, lash.^[10][4]
2. to dash against, of waves and streams.^[10]
3. to hurt, injure.^[10][4]
4. to tread, tramp, stamp.^[10][5]

Word family

• ābēatan
• ġebēatan
• ofbēatan
• tōbēatan

Descendants

• Middle English beten (→ English beat; Middle Scots beit; Middle Scots bete)^[1]

Related words

• bīetel

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 40
3. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 18
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. béatan
5. ^ a b c d Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. bēatan
6. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 89
7. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 76
8. ^ a b c d e Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
9. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 412
10. ^ a b c d e f Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 73
11. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 66
12. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
13. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 223
15. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 344