| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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Appendix I
Indo-European Roots |
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| ENTRY: | bheid- |
| DEFINITION: | To split; with Germanic derivatives referring to biting (hence also to eating and to hunting) and woodworking.
Derivatives include bite, bitter, and fission.
1a. beetle1, bite, from Old English b tan, to bite; b. tsimmes, from Old High German bzan, bizzan, to bite. Both a and b from Germanic *btan. 2. Zero-grade form *bhid-. a. bit2, from Old English bite, a bite, sting, from Germanic *bitiz; b. (i) bit1, from Old English bita, a piece bitten off, morsel; (ii) bitt, from a Germanic source akin to Old Norse biti, bit, crossbeam. Both (i) and (ii) from Germanic *bit n-; c. suffixed form *bhid-ro-. bitter, from Old English bit(t)er, “biting,” sharp, bitter. 3. O-grade form *bhoid-. a. bait1, from Old Norse beita (verb), to hunt with dogs, and beita (noun), pasture, food; b. abet, from Old French beter, to harass with dogs. Both a and b from Germanic *baitjan. 4. bateau, boat; boatswain, from Old English b t, boat, from Germanic *bait-, a boat (< “dugout canoe” or “split planking”). 5. Nasalized zero-grade form *bhi-n-d-. –fid, fissi-, fissile, fission, fissure, vent2, from Latin findere, to split. (Pokorny bheid- 116.) |
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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