been

See also: Been

English

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Wikipedia

Etymology 1

From Middle English ybeen, been, past participle of been (“to be”), from Old English ġebēon, past participle of bēon (“to be”), equivalent to be +‎ -en.

Alternative forms

  • (obsolete): ybe (see y-).

Pronunciation

Verb

been

  1. (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) past participle of be

Etymology 2

From Middle English been, be, present plural of been (“to be”) (with the -n leveled in from the past and subjunctive; compare competing forms aren/are, beth), from Old English bēoþ, present plural of bēon (“to be”), from Proto-Germanic *biunþi, third-person present plural of *beuną (“to be, become”).

Verb

been

  1. (obsolete)
    (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) plural simple present of be
    • 1584, George Peele, The Arraignment of Paris, I, ii
      My love is fair, my love is gay,
      As fresh as been the flowers in May;
    • c. 1608, William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, II
      Where when men been, there's seldom ease;
    • 1641, Ben Jonson, The Sad Shepherd, I, iii
      O Friar, those are faults that are not seen,
      Ours open, and of worse example been.
    • Lua error in Module:quote at line 165: The first parameter (language code) is missing.
      Some of green Boughs their slender Cabbins frame, / Some lodged were Tortoſa's streets about, / Of all the Hoſt the Chief of Worth and Name / Aſſembled been, a Senate grave and ſtout;

Etymology 3

From Middle English been (“to be”), from Old English bēon (“to be”), from Proto-Germanic *beuną (“to be, become”).

Verb

been

  1. (Southern US)
    (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) infinitive of be

Etymology 4

From Middle English been, from Old English bēon (“bees”), nominative and accusative plural of bēo (“bee”), equivalent to bee +‎ -en.

Pronunciation

Noun

been

  1. (Britain dialectal)
    (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) plural of bee

See also

References

Vaux, Bert and Scott Golder. 2003. The Harvard Dialect Survey: been. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Linguistics Department.

Anagrams

Afrikaans

Afrikaans Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia af

Etymology

From Dutch been.

Noun

been (plural bene or beendere, diminutive beentjie)

  1. leg
  2. bone

Usage notes

  • The plural beendere is used alternatively in the sense “bone”, especially collectively.

Derived terms

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch bêen, from Old Dutch bēn, from Proto-Germanic *bainą.

Pronunciation

Noun

been n (plural benen, diminutive beentje n)

  1. leg, limb of a person, horse (other animals' would have poten) and certain objects (again many have poten)
    De benen van een passer. ― The legs of a pair of compasses.
  2. (mathematics) side, leg
    De benen van een hoek. ― The sides of an angle.

Usage notes

  • The contemporary plural benen is derived from an analogy to other nouns with regular plurals. Originally, been was left unchanged in the plural; such use in preserved only in set phrases like op de been (“upright, standing, awake”).

Noun

been n (plural beenderen or benen, diminutive beentje n)

  1. bone, constituent part of a skeleton.
  2. (uncountable) bone, the chalky material bones are made of

Synonyms

Derived terms

(deprecated use of |lang= parameter)

Verb

Template:nl-verb-form

  1. first-person singular present indicative of benen
  2. imperative of benen

Anagrams

Dutch Low Saxon

Noun

been

  1. leg

See also

  • German Low German: Been

Finnish

Noun

been

  1. Genitive singular form of bee.
  2. Accusative singular form of bee.

Middle Dutch

Etymology

From Old Dutch bēn, from Proto-Germanic *bainą.

Noun

bêen n

  1. leg
  2. foot
  3. bone

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Alternative forms

Descendants

Further reading

  • “been”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek‎[1], 2000
  • Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J., “been”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek‎[2], The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1885–1929, →ISBN

Middle English

Etymology 1

From a conflation of Old English bēon and wesan, from Proto-Germanic *beuną and *wesaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewHeti and a conflation of *h₂wéseti and *h₁ésti.

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Verb

been

  1. to be
    • 1382 John Wycliffe, translation of the Bible (John 1:48)
      Bifor that Filip clepide thee, whanne thou were vndur the fige tree, Y saiy thee.
    • 1407, The Testimony of William Thorpe, pages 40–41
      ...Filip of Repintoun whilis he was a chanoun of Leycetre, Nycol Herforde, dane Geffrey of Pikeringe, monke of Biland and a maistir dyuynyte, and Ioon Purueye, and manye other whiche weren holden rightwise men and prudent...
Conjugation
Conjugation of been (irregular)
infinitive (to) been
indicative present past
1st person singular am, be was
2nd person singular art, bist were, wast
3rd person singular is, bith, biþ was
plural are(n), beth, bee(n) were(n)
subjunctive present past
singular be, si wer(e)
plural been weren
imperative present
singular be
plural beth, beþ
participle present past
beinge, beende (y)been
Descendants
  • English: be (dialectal been)
  • Scots: be

Etymology 2

From Old English bēon, nominative plural form of bēo, from Proto-Germanic *bijōniz, nominative plural form of *bijǭ.

Noun

been

  1. (deprecated template usage)
    (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) plural of bee

Etymology 3

From Old English ġebēon, past participle of bēon (“to be”); equivalent to y- +‎ be +‎ -en.

Alternative forms

Verb

been

  1. (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) past participle of been
Descendants
  • English: been
  • Scots: been

Etymology 4

From {with the -þ replaced with an -n leveled in from the past and subjunctive) Old English bēoþ, present plural of bēon (“to be”), from Proto-Germanic *biunþi, third-person present plural of *beuną (“to be, become”).

Alternative forms

Verb

been

  1. (deprecated template usage) Plural present indicative form of been
Usage notes

The usual plural form of been is aren in the North, been in the Midlands, and beth in the South; sind also existed, especially early on, but was not the predominant form in any area.

Descendants
  • English: been (obsolete as the plural)

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English ybeen, from Old English ġebēon, past participle of bēon (“to be”).

Verb

been

  1. (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) past participle of be

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