been

See also: Been

English

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Etymology 1

From Middle English ybeen, 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
  2. (obsolete)
    (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) plural simple present of be
    Assembled been a senate grave and stout. — Fairfax.
    • 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.
  3. (Southern US)
    (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) infinitive of be

Etymology 2

From Middle English been, from Old English bēon (“bees”), nominative and accusative plural of bēo (“bee”). More at bee.

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)

  1. leg
  2. bone

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

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

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.

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 (strong)
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, aren, beth, been 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: to be
  • Scots: be

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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