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beak

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Pronunciation

beak1 bill of a bird

Etymology

The bird's bill is inherited from Middle English bec, later bek,[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French bec (“beak”), also bec,[5][6][4][1][7] from Late Latin beccus,[6][8][9] which the Romans said was of Gaulish origin.[6][5][9] Suetonius records that Antonius Primus, born at Toulouse, was nicknamed Beccus as a boy, which he explains as meaning a cock's beak;[5][10] Wiktionary takes the Latin word from Gaulish *bekkos.[1] Barnhart and Etymonline compare a Celtic stem Proto-Celtic *bacc- (“hook”),[2][6] and Etymonline also mentions Old English becca (“pickaxe”).[6][9] The Latin word is also the source of Italian becco, Spanish pico and Portuguese bico.[6][5] Hoad explains the long vowel of beak from the oblique form beke; the form with the short vowel lasted until the 18th century.[3] The verb is inherited from Middle English beken, borrowed from Old French bequer, derived from bec.[4][5][8] Ayto notes that the Latin word for beak was originally rōstrum, and the Old English one bile, the ancestor of bill.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bird's bill: about 1220, in the Middle English Bestiary.[5] Barnhart dates the word to before 1250,[2] and Etymonline to the mid-13th century.[6] The verb, to peck, appears about 1225 in the Ancrene Riwle.[5]

Semantic evolution

Already in Anglo-Norman the word was used of the tip of the nose and of the beak-shaped projection at a ship's prow.[7] In English it spread to things shaped like a beak, a point or projection (about 1440), and in 1550 to the ram at the prow of ancient warships.[5] Naturalists applied it to the snouts and mouthparts of other animals, of insects such as the weevil (1658) and of turtles and octopuses (1822), and to the tips of shells (1851) and seeds (1820).[5][8] The human nose was called a beak in the 15th century,[6][11] and in slang from the 18th century, Vanbrugh writing of a man "with his Uggly Beak before him" (1702);[12] the jocular use is dated by the OED from Thackeray (1854).[5][6] Johnson (1755) defined the word as the bill or horny mouth of a bird.[13] In northern English and Scots dialect beak meant the nose or face, and as a verb, to kiss.[14]

Timeline

  • c. 1220 – the bill of a bird.[5]
  • c. 1225 – verb, to peck, strike with the beak.[5]
  • c. 1440 – a beak-shaped point or projection.[5]
  • 1550 – the ram at the prow of an ancient warship.[5]
  • 1606 – birds of a beak, after birds of a feather.[5]
  • 1658 – the proboscis of certain insects.[5]
  • 1702 – slang, a person's nose.[12] The OED's first record of this jocular sense is in 1854.[5]
  • 1822 – the horny jaws of other animals, such as the octopus.[5]
  • 1898 – verb, to ram a ship.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The hard, pointed, projecting jaws of a bird; a bill.[15][4][5]
  2. A similar mouthpart of other animals, such as the turtle or octopus.[15][4][5]
  3. The long sucking mouth or proboscis of certain insects.[4][5]
  4. (slang) A person's nose, especially a large or hooked one.[15][4][5]
  5. A projecting part like a beak, such as the lip of a jug or the point of a shell.[15][4][5]
  6. The ram projecting from the prow of an ancient warship.[15][5]

Verb

  1. To strike, seize or peck with the beak.[4][5][8]

Word family

  • beaked
  • beaky
  • beakless
  • beaklike

beak2 magistrate

Etymology

The slang word for a magistrate is of unknown origin.[5] The OED asks whether it comes from beak1, but notes that Harman's glossary of thieves' language (1573) has harman beck for a constable, harman meaning the stocks;[5] the Shorter Oxford, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Collins take it as originally thieves' cant.[8][16][15][17] Hotten (1859) and Ware suggested Old English beag (“ring, collar”), as a badge of office,[12] and Brewer gave the same explanation.[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

A magistrate or judge: 1749, in "Never snitch to bum or beak", in B. M. Carew's "Oath of the Canting Crew".[12] The OED's first record is from 1799,[5] and Weekley places the word in the 16th century.[17]

Semantic evolution

The word lived in criminals' slang: a 1753 glossary gives a rum beak for a good justice,[12] and up before the beak became the usual phrase for appearing in a magistrate's court.[12] By the 19th century it was general dialect and slang, recorded in Yorkshire and Middlesex.[14] Schoolboys transferred it to a schoolmaster in the late 19th century (1888),[5][8] a use Weekley called quite modern.[17] A verb, to bring an offender before a magistrate, is recorded in 1902.[12]

Timeline

  • 1573 – harman beck, a constable, in Harman's glossary of thieves' language.[5]
  • 1749 – a magistrate, a judge.[12] The OED's first record is from 1799.[5]
  • 1888 – schoolboys' slang, a schoolmaster.[5][8]
  • 1902 – verb, to bring an offender before a magistrate.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (British slang) A magistrate or justice of the peace: He was up before the beak on Monday.[5][8][19][12]
  2. (British slang) A schoolmaster.[5][8]
  • grosbeak
  • beccafico
  • bill

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  11. ^ 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)
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  15. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  17. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  18. ^ Brewer, E. Cobham (1898), Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, new ed., London: Cassell
  19. ^ Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West