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Etymology and origin of the English word bent

Pronunciation

bent1 stiff grass, grassy place

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
First attested
851 place name Beonotsetena
Inherited from
Old English beonet via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-West Germanic *binut-

Etymology

The word for the stiff grass and the grassy place is inherited from Middle English bent, early also benet and bunet,[2] inherited from Old English beonet, also beonot,[2][3][4][5][6] found only in place names such as Bēonetlēah, now Bentley.[6][5][7][8] It goes back to Proto-West Germanic *binut- (“rush, marsh grass”),[5][4][6][8] of unknown origin,[5][4][6][7][9] and its cognates are Old Saxon binet, Old High German binuz and German Binse (“rush”).[4][5][6][3] The OED calls it a word of difficult history: the grass sense fits the Old English element, but the OED's clear records of that sense begin in the 15th century, long after "grassy field" in northern writers.[4] It therefore joins the two only provisionally, suggesting that the plural of the word may have named a place where such grass grew, as in Totley Bents near Sheffield.[4] The variant bennet occurs only in the grass senses.[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English has the word only inside place names, such as Beonotsetena in 851 and Beonetlege in 855.[2][8] As a word of its own it appears first in the 14th century: "grassy place" in Staffordshire names of 1327, such as Del Bent,[2][8] and the grass in Durham manor records of 1364.[2][8] The OED's first dates for these are later, c. 1360 and c. 1425.[4]

Semantic evolution

In northern Middle English poetry, the word meant open country, and then a place of battle, in phrases like bold upon bent, bold in the field.[2][7][10] In the Knight's Tale, "under a bente" may mean by a slope, but the OED doubts this sense.[2][4] Johnson (1755) defined the word as "declivity", quoting Dryden.[11] The later plant names grew out of the grass sense: the stiff flower stalk from 1577,[4] and in English botany the genus Agrostis from 1796,[4] with bent grass dated to 1677 by Merriam-Webster Unabridged.[3] To flee or take to the bent, to escape to the moors or open country, is recorded from 1724.[4] In Scotland, Ireland and the northern and midland counties, the English Dialect Dictionary found bent in general use for coarse moorland or seaside grass,[12] while Cumberland had bent for high pasture and "a bent place" for a bleak one.[12] Etymonline calls it obsolete except in place names such as Bentley and Bentham.[5]

Timeline

  • 851 – Beonotsetena, a place name with the Old English element.[2][8]
  • 1327 – a grassy place, in Staffordshire names.[2][8] The OED's first record is from c. 1360.[4]
  • 1364 – a stiff coarse grass, in Durham manor records.[2][8] The OED's first record is from c. 1425.[4]
  • c. 1385 – perhaps a slope, in Chaucer's Knight's Tale.[2][4]
  • 1577 – the stiff flower stalk of grasses.[4]
  • 1724 – to take to the bent, to escape to open country.[4]
  • 1796 – the grass genus Agrostis.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A stiff, reedy or rushlike grass; especially bent grass, a grass of the genus Agrostis used for pasture and lawns.[3][4][7]
  2. The stiff flower stalk of a grass.[3][4][7]
  3. Open, unenclosed grassy land; a heath or moor.[3][4][7]
  4. (archaic) A field of battle.[7][2]
  5. (archaic) A hillside or slope.[3][4]

Word family

  • bent grass
  • benty

bent2 curved; inclination

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 1330 Arthour and Merlin
Ultimate origin
Old English bendan
Etymology tree of bent2
inherited borrowed derived
English bend
English bent
From the same root · bent2
English bender ← bend

Etymology

The word for "curved" and for an inclination is from English from the verb bend, Middle English benden, from Old English bendan (“to bend a bow, bring into a curved state”).[2][5] The adjective is the verb's past participle, in Middle English also ibent.[4][5][3][7][13][2] The noun is less straightforward: the OED, the Shorter Oxford, Hoad and Merriam-Webster Unabridged take it as formed from the verb on the model of descend and descent, or extend and extent,[4][7][6][3] and the OED finds no sufficient parallel for a noun made from a past participle.[4] The Middle English Dictionary, however, derives it from the participle,[2] and Barnhart and Etymonline from the adjective in its sense "turned, inclined", Barnhart adding that this was probably a translation of Latin inclīnātiō (“inclination”).[8][5] The OED notes that bent for a hill is too early to belong here, though the two were perhaps confused later.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective meant "braced for action, levelled as a weapon" about 1330, in Arthour and Merlin,[4] a text Barnhart dates to probably before 1300, with the form ibent;[8] "curved" follows, in Chaucer, about 1370 according to Barnhart and about 1374 according to the OED.[8][4] The noun first appears for the drawing of a bow, in Lydgate's "the bent of Jackys bowe", before 1456,[2] ahead of the OED's first record, of 1521, for a piece bent into a bow.[4]

Semantic evolution

The adjective meant "determined, resolved" from 1548,[4] and is now used so only after a verb, followed by on or upon.[7][3] The noun meant the condition of being turned in some direction before 1535, in Thomas More,[4][8] and then mental inclination, the usual modern sense, in 1587,[4] a date Barnhart gives as 1586 and Etymonline as the 1570s.[8][5] The extent to which a bow can be bent gave the sense of a limit of endurance,[6][4] as in Hamlet's "They fool me to the top of my bent" (1604).[4][10] Johnson (1755) listed the state of being bent, then its degree, then "utmost power, as of a bent bow".[11] In the 20th century, bent became slang for what is not straight, in the manner of crooked:[5][7] "dishonest" from 1914, first in American English and now mainly in British,[4] "stolen" from 1922, first in Australia,[4] "crazy" from 1942[4] and "homosexual", offensive, from 1957 as a noun and 1959 as an adjective.[4] American slang had "drunk" even earlier, from 1833,[14] and bent out of shape, very upset, comes from 1960s Air Force and college students.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1330 – adjective, braced for action, levelled as a weapon (last recorded 1675).[4] Barnhart dates ibent in the same poem to probably before 1300.[8]
  • c. 1374 – adjective, curved, crooked.[4] Barnhart has about 1370.[8]
  • before 1456 – noun, the drawing of a bow, and figuratively a person's inclination.[2]
  • before 1535 – noun, the condition of being turned in some direction.[4] Barnhart dates this to 1534.[8]
  • 1548 – adjective, determined, resolved.[4]
  • 1587 – noun, mental inclination or tendency.[4] Barnhart has 1586, and Etymonline the 1570s.[8][5]
  • 1604 – noun, to the top of my bent, in Hamlet.[4]
  • 1697 – adjective, directed in a course, bound.[4][5]
  • 1833 – adjective, slang, drunk.[14]
  • 1914 – adjective, slang, dishonest, criminal.[4]
  • 1922 – adjective, slang, stolen.[4]
  • 1942 – adjective, slang, eccentric, mentally unstable.[4]
  • 1957 – noun, slang, a gay person; adjective from 1959.[4]
  • 1960s – bent out of shape, very upset.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Not straight; curved or crooked: a bent nail.[15][3][4]
  2. Set on a course of action; determined, followed by on or upon: She was bent on winning the election.[15][3][7]
  3. Directed in a course; headed somewhere.[4][5]
  4. (slang, chiefly British) Dishonest or corrupt.[15][3][4]
  5. (slang) Of goods, stolen.[15][4]
  6. (slang) Eccentric or mad.[15][3][4]
  7. (slang, offensive) Homosexual.[15][3][4]
  8. (slang) Drunk or intoxicated.[3][14]
  9. (slang) bent out of shape: very upset or angry.[3][5]
  10. (obsolete, c. 1330–1675) Braced for action; levelled as a weapon.[4][7]

Noun

  1. A natural inclination, tendency or aptitude: a musical bent.[15][3][4]
  2. Capacity of endurance, especially in the phrase to the top of one's bent.[15][3][4]
  3. A framework placed across a structure such as a trestle or bridge to stiffen it.[15][3][4]
  4. (slang, offensive) A gay person.[4][14]
  5. (archaic) A curved state or form; curvature.[3][7][4]
  6. (obsolete, 1587–1653) A curved part; a bend.[4][3]

Word family

  • hell-bent
  • bentwood

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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 i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  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 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ 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)
  13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  14. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Bent.” Etymologically, 6 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/bent. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

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