beckon

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bekenen, also beknen,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English bīecnan, also bēcnan.^{[5][3][4][6][7]} It goes back to Proto-West Germanic *bauknijan (“to signal”),^[1][8][9] a verb formed on *baukn (“signal, beacon”),^[1][8][5] the source of beacon.^[5][10][11] Old English also had bēacnian, which Barnhart and Etymonline give as the West Saxon form^[12][13] and the OED calls a later formation on the noun bēacen (“sign, beacon”).^[5][12] Cognates are Old Saxon bōknian and Old High German bouhnen,^{[5][7][6][13]} and the OED compares Old Norse bákna.^[5][1] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace the word further to Proto-Indo-European *bha- (“to shine”).^[13][3] Barnhart notes that Middle English also had a shorter verb, bekken (about 1385), derived from the longer one.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make a silent sign or gesture with the head or hand: Barnhart finds Old English bēcnian before 830, in the Vespasian Psalter,^[12] and the OED's first quotation is from the Lindisfarne Gospels, at Luke 1:22.^[5] Bosworth–Toller quotes the same verse from the Old English gospels: He wæs bícniende him, for the Latin erat innuens illis.^[14]

Semantic evolution

The verb first covered any silent signal, and in Old English it could also mean to show or indicate.^[14] Weekley observes that it now usually means a summoning gesture, though its sense was wider in the verse from Luke.^[15] Middle English kept that range: the Middle English Dictionary has to communicate by signs, to summon, and to point,^[2] and in the Ormulum of about 1175 someone left dumb toc to becnenn till þe follc.^[2] The transitive use, to signal to a person, is recorded from about 1440.^[5] The OED also has a rare use for acting as a beacon, in the Destruction of Troy, and a use for nodding or bowing in 1578.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "to make a sign to", deriving it from beck or from the Old English word for a sign.^[16] Dictionaries now also record a figurative sense, "to appear inviting".^[4][3][6]

Timeline

• before 830 – to signal by a gesture, Old English bēcnian in the Vespasian Psalter.^[12]
• c. 1175 – Middle English becnenn, in the Ormulum, to make signs to people.^[2]
• c. 1275 – to summon by a signal of any kind (now obsolete).^[5][17]
• c. 1440 – transitive, to signal to a person with the head or hand.^[5]
• 1578 – to nod or bow (obsolete).^[5][17]
• 1640 – noun, a signalling gesture.^[4] The OED's first record is from before 1718, in W. Penn's tracts.^[5][13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a gesture with the hand or head as a signal, especially for someone to come nearer: He beckoned to the waiter from across the room.^[4][3][18]
2. To call or summon someone by such a gesture: The guard beckoned us through the gate.^[4][3][6]
3. To seem inviting or attractive; to entice: A career in the theatre beckoned.^[4][3][19]

Noun

1. A silent gesture of summons.^{[3][4][19][5]}

Word family

• beckoner
• beckoningly
• unbeckoned

Related words

• beck

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
18. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
19. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins