Etymologically
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beat

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /biːt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English beten,[2][3] inherited from Old English bēatan (“to strike repeatedly, thrash”),[4][2] from Proto-Germanic *bautan,[4][5] the source also of Old High German bōzan “to beat” and Old Norse bauta,[4][2] from Proto-Indo-European *bhau- (“to strike”).[4][3][2] Merriam-Webster relates it to Latin -fūtāre “to beat” and fustis “club”.[6] The past tense beat, from about 1500, is a shortening of Middle English beted.[4][2] The noun is from the verb, about 1300,[2][4] and the adjective “defeated, exhausted” from the old past participle beat.[4][2] It is related to beetle in the sense “heavy mallet”.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English bēatan, “to strike repeatedly”, is found about 725 in Beowulf;[2] Middle English beten probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle.[2]

Semantic evolution

Of the heart, “to throb”, the verb is from about 1200, from the idea of the heart striking against the breast.[4] “To overcome, defeat” is Middle English,[7] recorded in the sense “overcome in a contest” from the 1610s;[4] “to be too difficult for”, as in beats me, is by 1870.[4] To beat about the bush, from the 1570s, comes from beaters who struck the undergrowth to rouse game birds,[7][4] and its sense has shifted from “to make preliminary moves” to “to avoid the point”.[4] In sailing, “to make way against the wind by tacking” is from the 1670s.[4] Beat it!, “go away!”, is by 1906.[4][8] The noun meant a beating or the beat of a drum about 1300;[4] the musical sense came through drumbeats by the 17th century,[7] or by 1842 from the conductor's beating time.[4] A policeman's or watchman's regular route is from 1731,[4] extended to journalism by 1875.[4] The adjective “exhausted” is by 1905, American English.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – to strike repeatedly.[2]
  • c. 1200 – of the heart, to throb.[4]
  • c. 1300 – noun, a beating; a drumbeat.[4][2]
  • c. 1400 – adjective, defeated.[4]
  • c. 1500 – past tense beat.[4]
  • 1570s – beat about the bush.[4]
  • 1610s – to defeat in a contest.[4]
  • 1731 – a regular route.[4]
  • 1842 – the beat in music.[4]
  • 1905 – adjective, exhausted.[4]
  • 1906 – beat it!.[4][8]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To hit repeatedly.
  2. To defeat or do better than.
  3. Of the heart, to pulse or throb.
  4. To stir food quickly: beat the eggs.
  5. Of wings, to move up and down.
  6. To strike a drum.
  7. To strike bushes to drive out game.

Noun

  1. A stroke or blow, or its sound.
  2. A regular rhythmical unit of time in music; the main accent or rhythm.
  3. A pulsation of the heart.
  4. The area regularly covered by a police officer or reporter.

Adjective

  1. (informal) Very tired.

Word family

  • beatable
  • beatless
  • afterbeat
  • bluebeat
  • hoofbeat
  • pulsebeat
  • backbeat
  • beaten
  • beater
  • beating
  • beatnik
  • deadbeat
  • beetle
  • button
  • butt
  • abet

Usage notes

A separate dialect verb beat, from 1534, of unknown origin, meant to pare off the rough turf from fallow ground before burning it, and the pared turf was called beat in the south-west.[8][9][10] A beat was also a small bundle of flax or hemp.[8][10]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  4. ^ 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ 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)