Etymologically
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bei

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Pronunciation

Forms

bei[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German bī, inherited from Old High German bī, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *bī, inherited from Proto-Germanic *bi.[2][1][3] The same word is Gothic 𐌱𐌹 (bi, “around, about”), Old English bī, Old Frisian bī and Old Saxon bī, and it survives as Dutch bij and English by.[2][4] As an unstressed verbal prefix it became 𐌱𐌹- (bi-), be- and Old High German bi-, the source of be-.[2][3] The Germanic word was lengthened under stress in West Germanic.[4][5]

The meaning is “near” in West Germanic but “around” in Gothic.[2][4] The Gothic sense allows a connection with Proto-Indo-European *ambʰi (“on both sides, around”), the source of Ancient Greek ἀμφί (amphí), Latin amb- and the related um, if the first syllable was lost in Germanic, as in beide.[2][4][6] Kluge does not rule out that the sense “near” comes from another formation, perhaps Indo-European *api.[2][7] The revised Grimm also considers the zero grade of Proto-Indo-European *epi (“near, on”), as in Ancient Greek ἐπί (epí) and ob, probably merged with a similar Proto-Indo-European *obʰi.[5] Wiktionary calls the origin disputed.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German bī is recorded from the 8th century, first in glosses of about 765.[2][8] It was an adverb, “near”, and a preposition with a wide range of senses: “near, beside, along, at, in” of place, “around, within, during” of time, “because of, for the sake of” and “in relation to, compared with”.[3] Old Saxon bi is frequent in the Heliand.[9]

Semantic evolution

According to Paul the word was at first only an adverb and took over the functions of the preposition partly already in Old High German.[10] As an adverb it has survived since Old High German almost only in compounds such as dabei, herbei, nebenbei and beisammen and in separable verbs such as beilegen;[4][6] northern colloquial speech still separates da and bei (da hat er bei gelacht “he laughed at that”).[4]

As a preposition it first marked nearness in space, then the circumstances of an event, often with a sense of time, condition, cause or concession (bei Glatteis “when there is black ice”, bei aller Verehrung “with all respect”).[6][4] In oaths such as bei Gott! the deity was originally called on as a witness thought to be present.[6][11] In Swiss German the word even forms a comparative beier “nearer” and a superlative der beiste “the nearest”.[12]

Timeline

  • c. 765 – Old High German bī appears in glosses.[8]
  • 1060–1065 – Middle High German bī is used in Williram's commentary on the Song of Songs.[13]

Meanings

Preposition

  1. Near, by; marking proximity: die Schlacht bei Leipzig “the battle of Leipzig”, Bernau bei Berlin “Bernau near Berlin”.[11][1]
  2. Among: er war auch bei den Demonstranten “he was among the demonstrators too”.[11]
  3. By; marking direct contact: das Kind bei der Hand nehmen “to take the child by the hand”.[11]
  4. At (someone's home): er wohnt bei seinen Eltern “he lives with his parents”.[11][1]
  5. For, at, in; of a firm or institution: bei einer Firma arbeiten “to work for a firm”.[11][1]
  6. At, during; of an event or activity: bei einer Hochzeit sein “to be at a wedding”.[11][1]
  7. In the event of, with; of a condition or accompanying circumstance: Wasser kocht bei 100 Grad “water boils at 100 degrees”.[4][1]
  8. About, at; of an approximate or reached value: der Umsatz liegt bei 90 Millionen “turnover is about 90 million”.[11]
  9. By; in oaths: bei Gott! “by God!”[11][6]
  10. (regional, nonstandard) To, with the accusative: komm mal bei mich! “come over to me!”[11][1]

Word family

  • beim
  • dabei
  • herbei
  • nebenbei
  • vorbei
  • beisammen

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 104
  3. ^ a b c Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 2, 1
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  5. ^ a b Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm, Neubearbeitung (1965–2018), ed. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 9 vols. (A–F), Leipzig / Stuttgart: Hirzel, p. 4, 709
  6. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  7. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ Referenzkorpus Altdeutsch (ReA, DDD-AD 1.0) (2016), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin et al., hdl.handle.net/11022/0000-0003-37E5-D
  10. ^ Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  12. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1357
  13. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling