bequeath

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English biquethen,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English becweþan,^{[5][3][6][7][8][9]} formed from Old English be- + cweþan (“to say”).^{[6][9][10][8][11]} The prefix meant "about" and made the verb transitive.^[10][12] The simple verb cweþan, the source of Middle English quethen,^[3] is from Proto-Germanic *kweþaną,^[6][2][13] with cognates in Gothic 𐌵𐌹𐌸𐌰𐌽 (qiþan), Old Norse kveða, Old Saxon quethan, Old Frisian quetha and Old High German quedan.^[13][14][15] The American Heritage Dictionary and Köbler take it back to Proto-Indo-European *gʷet- (“to say, speak”), Köbler with a question mark.^[9][16] The simple verb went out of use, but its old past tense survives as quoth,^[6][7][12] which Ayto stresses has nothing to do with quote.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To say or utter: probably about 750, in the Old English poem Andreas.^[2][8] The sense "give by will" followed in the 9th century, in Barnhart's dating of Alfred's Will (800–885),^[2] although Ayto first records it in 1066.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Etymologically, you bequeath what you "say" you will leave someone;^[7] the OED describes the legal group of senses as "saying a thing away", parting with it by formal declaration.^[8] The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins connects this with a time when wills were often spoken rather than written.^[12] Old English also used the verb for speaking to, exhorting or blaming someone,^[6][5] and for praying for them;^[5] the plain sense "say, utter" died out in the 13th century.^[6][7] Only the language of wills kept it alive, as the OED remarks.^[8][6][17] Middle English widened the idea of handing over: to assign or allot (before 1325 to 1674), to transfer at once rather than after death (about 1305 to 1616), and to commend to someone's care (about 1225 to 1716).^[8] From 1614, in Raleigh's History of the World, the figurative use passes on ideas or qualities to later generations.^[8][18] The verb began as a strong one, like cweþan, and has had only weak forms since 1500.^[8] Northern writers of the 15th century spelled it bewhethe and -whete, -withe, -quite, which the OED reads as popular etymology groping for some familiar verb.^[8] Johnson (1755) derived it from a Saxon word for a will.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 750 – to say, to utter (obsolete).^[2][8]
• 800–885 – to give by will, in Alfred's Will.^[2] Ayto first records this sense in 1066.^[7]
• c. 1175 – of language, to express or mean (obsolete by 1200).^[8]
• before 1200 – the Middle English form biquethen, in Layamon's Brut.^[2][3]
• c. 1225 – to commit to someone's care, to entrust (obsolete or archaic by 1716).^[8]
• c. 1305 – to transfer property at once (obsolete by 1616).^[8]
• before 1325 – to assign or allot (obsolete by 1674).^[8]
• c. 1440 – to deliver, bestow or give (obsolete by 1674).^[8]
• 1558 – reflexive, to commit or devote oneself (obsolete or archaic by 1829).^[8]
• 1614 – figurative, to pass an idea or quality on to later generations.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (law) To leave property, especially personal property, to someone by will: She bequeathed her library to the town.^{[14][18][20][8]}
2. To hand down something to those who come after: Each generation bequeaths its debts to the next.^[14][18][8]
3. (archaic) To entrust someone or something to the care of another.^[18][8]
4. (obsolete) To say or declare.^[8][21]
5. (obsolete, 1305–1616) To transfer property to someone with immediate effect.^[8][21][20]

Word family

• bequeathal
• bequeather
• bequeathable
• unbequeathed

Related words

• quoth
• bequest

Usage notes

In law the verb is used chiefly of personal property;^[20][18][14] Merriam-Webster's Unabridged, Collins and the Shorter Oxford compare devise.^[18][14][21] A noun bequeath, a bequest or will, recorded from 1297 to 1641, has a separate source, Old English bícwide (“byword, proverb”), and was only gradually assimilated in form to the verb.^[8] In Devon it was still a dialect word, the only form in the Hartland church accounts from 1597 to 1706.^[22]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ 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)
4. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
16. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
17. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
18. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
19. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
20. ^ a b c Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
21. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
22. ^ 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)