Etymologically
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bite

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /baɪt/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English biten, inherited from Old English bītan (“to pierce or cut with the teeth”) (past tense bāt, biton, past participle biten),[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *bītaną,[4][2] which is also the source of Old Saxon bītan, Dutch bijten, Old High German bīzan (German beißen), Old Norse bíta and Gothic 𐌱𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (beitan).[2][3][4] Outside Germanic it is cognate with Latin findere (“to cleave, split”) and Sanskrit भिनद्मि (bhinádmi, “I split”),[2][5][3] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to split”).[2][4][6] The noun is late Old English bite, from Proto-Germanic *bitiz, and also formed again from the verb.[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To cut into, pierce or nip with the teeth: before 1000 in the OED,[8] about 725 in Beowulf in Barnhart.[2]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins notes that the ancestor of bite also gave bit and bitter and probably meant to split or cleave.[6] A mouthful or morsel of food is from about 1200,[4] a mark left by biting from the early 15th century,[4] and the catch of one mechanical part on another by 1865.[4] Figurative biting, of cold, words or pain, is from about 1200.[8] Fish taking the bait gave the sense of being taken in by a trick.[9] To bite one's lip is from the early 14th century and to bite one's tongue by the 1590s;[4] to bite the dust is in Smollett in 1750, after earlier bite the ground (1670s) and lick the dust (late 14th century).[4][6] To bite off more than one can chew (about 1880) is American slang from plug tobacco.[4] To bite the bullet is said to come from patients biting a bullet during surgery,[4] though Word Origins finds no evidence that this was done.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – Old English bītan, in Beowulf.[2]
  • c. 1200 – a mouthful of food.[4]
  • early 14th century – to bite one's lip.[4]
  • 1590s – to bite one's tongue.[4]
  • 1750 – to bite the dust, in Smollett.[4][6]
  • 1865 – the hold of one mechanical part on another.[4]
  • c. 1880 – to bite off more than one can chew.[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To cut, grip or tear with the teeth.
  2. To pierce the skin with teeth, fangs or stings, as animals and insects do.
  3. To have a sharp or stinging effect, as cold or acid does.
  4. Of a fish, to take the bait; figuratively, to be taken in by a trick.
  5. To take hold or grip, as a wheel on a road.

Noun

  1. An act of biting, or a wound made by biting.
  2. A mouthful, or a small meal: a bite to eat.
  3. A sharp or pungent quality.

Word family

  • bitable
  • biter
  • backbite
  • biting
  • crib-biting
  • overbite
  • snakebite
  • underbite

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin