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Bib

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Bie

Du. bijbel, Fr. bible); formed from Gr.-Lat. biblia. Comp. Fibel.

Biber, m., ‘beaver,’ from the equiv. MidHG. biber, OHG. bibar, m.; it corresponds to AS. beofor, E. beaver, Du. bever, OIc. bjórr, Goth. *bibrus, A term common to the Aryan family, originally eignilying a ‘brown’ aquatic animal; Lat. fiber (OGall. Bibracte), OSlov. bebrŭ, Lith. běbrus (most frequently dábras), ‘beaver.’ OInd. babhrús as an adj. means ‘brown,’ as a subst. masc. ‘great ichneumon’; bhe-bhrú-s is a reduplicated form of the root bher in Bär and braun. The primitive tribe from which the Indo-Teutons are descended had ere its dispersion several fully developed names of animals; comp. Hund, Kuh, Maus, Wolf, &c. The Teut. word had at an early period supplanted the Lat. fiber in Rom., Late Lat. biber, Ital. bevero, Span. bibaro, Fr. bièvre, from Teut. bebru-, bibru-.

Bibernelle, Pimpinelle, Pimpernelle, f., ‘pimpernel,’ corruptions of the MidLat. botanical term pipinella, pimpinella. Even in MidHG. various corruptions are produced by popular etymology; Fr. pimprenelle.

Bicke, f., Bickel, m., ‘pickaxe,’ from the equiv. MidHG. bicke, bickel, m.; comp. MidHG. bicken, OHG. (ana)bicchan, wk. vb., ‘to prick, thrust’; allied to AS. becca, E. bick-iron. It is probably connected further with a Kelt.-Rom. class (Ital. becco, Fr. bec, Du. bek, ‘beak,’ Fr. bêche, ‘spade,’ Ital. beccare, ‘to hack,’ &c.); it is possible that AS. becca, ‘pickaxe,’ is allied to Ir. and Gael. bacc, ‘hook.’ Beil seems to come from another stem.

bidmen, wk. vb., an UpG. word equiv. in meaning to beben, ‘to tremble, shake,’ and allied to it; MidHG. bidemen, ‘to tremble,’ OHG. *bidimôn, must represent *bibimôn, bibinôn; respecting the relation of the consonants comp. OHG. pfëdamo and its variant pëbano under Pfebe. The OHG. bibinôn is an intensive form of OHG. bibên. See beben.

Bieber, ‘fever’. Only in compounds with -flee, -fraut, --wurz, Comp. MidHG. biever, n., ‘fever.’ Its relation to Lat. febris is ambiguous; it is probably a corruption of vieber. See Fieber.

bieder, adj., ‘staunch, honest,’ from MidHG. bíderbi, OHG. biderbi, ‘serviceable, useful,’ then ‘brave, gallant’ (comp. besser for a similar of idea); lit. ‘suitable

to one's need or purpose,’ for the adj. is a compound of the stem of dürfen, ‘to he in need of,’ and the prefix bi, which has retained its earlier accent without being replaced, as it usually is, by bî. The Goth. form was perhaps *bíþarbs; further, the adj. is identical with derb.

biegen, vb., ‘to bend, curve,’ from the equiv. MidHG. biegen, OHG. biogan, Goth. biugan, ‘to bend.’ In Eng. the word belongs to a different class, AS. bûgan, E. to bow; Du. biugen; comp. beugen, the factitive of this verb. Root bū̆g, from pre-Teut. bhū̆k, the k of which is changed in the regular manner into h in Bühel, OHG. buhil. In OInd. we should have expected *bhuc instead of the recorded bhuj (j for g), which agrees with the Teut. word only in the sense of ‘to bend’; Lat. fugio, Gr. φεύγω have the more remote signification ‘to flee,’ which AS. bûgan also shows. Further cognates are Bogen and biegsam (AS. bûhsom, bûxom, whence E. buxom).

Biene, f., ‘bee,’ from the equiv. MidHG. bine, bin, f., OHG. bini, n.; bĭ is the proper root syllable, as is shown by OHG. bîa, Du. bij, AS. beó, E. bee, OSw. bî (OIc. býfluga); the n of the weak declension is retained in the deriv. OHG. bī̆ni; the form binni (from binja-), which we should have expected, is not recorded. Besides these there are OHG. and MidHG. forms with î, OHG. bîna, f., MidHG. bîn, f. (Austr. dial. Bein); they are related perhaps to MidHG. bĭn like Goth. sŭnus to Sans. sûnus, Goth. qĭwa to Sans. jîva-, &c.; comp. Sohn, Queck, laut, Schaufel. Lith. bitìs, Ir. bech, ‘bee,’ seem allied, though they have a different suffix. The word is based on a root bhī̆, ‘to be afraid,’ discussed under beben; hence Biene is perhaps ‘the trembler’?. Respecting Bienenbrot comp. Brot. Bienenkorb was an early remodelled form for OHG. binichar. Biensaug, n., a botanical term, lit. ‘a plant that the bee is fond of sucking.’

Bier, n., ‘beer,’ from the equiv. MidHG. bier, OHG. and OLG. bior, n., comp. Du. bier, AS. beór, E. beer, OIc. bjórr; Fr. bière is borrowed MidHG. bier. There can be no connection with Lat. bibo, Sans. píbâmi; nor can Gr. πίων, OInd. pîvas, ‘a rich drink,’ be cognate. It is rightly thought to be akin to an OTeut. term for ‘barley,’ OLG. and AS. beó (OIc. bygg), from Teut. *bewwo-, based on a pre-hist. *bhéwo-, while the cognates of Bier point to a deriv. *bhewro-. Thus Bier is equal to ‘barley-juice’?.