besiege

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bisegen, also besegen and bysegen,^[2][3][4][5] formed from English be- + siege.^[6][7][3] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford, the Oxford Dictionary of English, Klein and the MED explain it instead as an alteration of assiege with a change of prefix,^{[8][9][10][11][2]} and the American Heritage Dictionary calls this probable;^[4] the OED leaves the base open between the verbs assiege and siege.^[3] Weekley gives both explanations, and suggests that beleaguer and beset may have encouraged the new prefix.^[12] The older verb goes back to Old French asegier, now assiéger,^[8][11][4] from Vulgar Latin *assedicō,^[8][11][4] formed from ad- and *sedicum (“seat”), itself from Latin sedeō (“to sit”).^[11][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To surround a town or castle with armed forces in order to capture it: 1297, in Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle,^[3] about 1300 in Etymonline.^[6] The MED also quotes the South English Legendary of about 1300, "bi-segi is Men alle".^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed a military term for its first three centuries.^[3] Figurative uses begin in 1600,^[3] and the Shorter Oxford quotes Shakespeare's Sonnets, "When forty winters shall besiege thy brow".^[9] The physical crowding of a place or person, as by an army, is recorded from 1686,^[3] and the sense of pressing someone with requests or prayers from 1712, in Steele's Spectator.^[3] Johnson (1755) still gave only the military sense, to beset with armed forces and win a town by violence or famine.^[13] The noun besiege, a siege, was used from 1552 to 1664.^[3]

Timeline

• 1297 – to lay siege to a town or castle.^[3]
• 1552 – noun, besieging, a siege (obsolete by 1664).^[3]
• 1600 – figurative use, in Armin's Foole upon Foole.^[3]
• 1686 – to crowd round, or hem in, like an army.^[3]
• 1712 – to assail with persistent requests or prayers.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To surround a place with armed forces in order to force its surrender; to lay siege to: The rebels besieged the fortress for a month.^[14][7][3]
2. To crowd around; to hem in: Fans besieged the singer outside the theatre.^[14][7][3]
3. To overwhelm, as with requests or questions: The office was besieged with complaints.^[14][3]

Word family

• besiegement
• besieger
• besiegingly
• unbesieged

Related words

• assiege
• sit

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
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. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins