beget

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English begeten, earlier biyeten,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English begietan (“to get by effort, obtain, seize”),^[5][3][6] formed from Old English be- + gietan (“to get”).^[3][5] The hard g of the modern form replaced an older palatal sound in early Middle English, by alteration after get;^[7][2][3] Hoad says that it appears first in northern texts.^[8] The verb has parallels in Old Saxon bigetan (“to seize”), Old High German bigezzan (“to obtain, get hold of”) and Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌲𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (bigitan, “to find”).^[7][9] The American Heritage Dictionary refers the base to the root Proto-Indo-European *ghend-,^[10] and Orel relates it to Ancient Greek χανδάνω (khandánō, “to hold”) and Latin prehendō (“to lay hold of”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To get, obtain or acquire: in the Laws of Ælfred, in early Old English.^[7] The sense of fathering a child is just as old in the revised OED, which finds it in the Will of Abba;^[7] Etymonline dates that sense to about 1200,^[5] and Hoad to the 13th century, after Old Norse geta.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The old sense, to get or acquire, lasted until 1660 in the OED,^[7] or the early 17th century in the Shorter Oxford.^[12] The word narrowed to procreation, generally of the father only,^[5] though the OED also records it, now less commonly, of both parents, and of animals.^[7] From about 1325 the mother could be named with on or upon.^[7] In theology it was used about 1350 of God the Father generating the Son.^[7] From about 1384 it was also used of God causing a spiritual rebirth.^[7] The Book of Common Prayer says that the Son is "not made, nor created, but begotten".^[12] The figurative sense, to call into being or give rise to, is recorded from about 1443 in R. Pecock,^[7] though the Shorter Oxford dates it only to the late 16th century.^[12] Johnson (1755) gave both the procreating sense and the sense "to produce, as effects".^[13] Chaucer has the verb five times, with past forms such as begat and bigat.^[14] The past tense begat lives on largely through the genealogies of the English Bible,^[7][3] which gave a noun, the begats, recorded from 1928.^[7] In dialect the word meant to happen to or befall in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, and in Somerset and Devon a form altered from forget meant to forget.^[15]

Timeline

• before 1000 – to get, obtain, acquire; to father a child.^[7][16]
• before 1121 – the Middle English form biyeten.^[2]
• c. 1250 – the form begeten, with a hard g.^[2]
• c. 1325 – with on or upon naming the mother.^[7]
• c. 1350 – of God the Father generating the Son.^[7]
• c. 1384 – of God causing a spiritual rebirth.^[7]
• before 1393 – to beget with child, to make pregnant, in Gower.^[7]
• c. 1443 – figuratively, to give rise to.^[7]
• 1928 – noun, the begats, a biblical genealogy.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To father a child; said usually of the male parent, sometimes of both parents: He begot three sons before he was thirty.^[17][3][7]
2. To cause or give rise to: Neglect begets further neglect.^[17][3][7]
3. (theology) Of God the Father, to generate the Son.^[7][12]
4. (obsolete, Old English–1660) To get or acquire, especially through effort.^[7][3][12]

Word family

• begetter
• begotten

Related words

• misbegotten
• unbegotten
• get
• forget

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ 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)
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ 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)
16. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
17. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins