While researching for a forthcoming post about linguistic features of George R. R. Martin’s writing in A Game of Thrones, I was examining this line (emphasis mine):

“You will attend me in court this afternoon,” Joffrey said. “See that you bathe and dress as befits my betrothed.” (743)

Pretty soon I found myself at the entry “be-, prefix” in the Oxford English Dictionary¹. (Those uninterested in language history can skip to the next paragraph now.) It originated in Old English, as a “weak or stressless form of the prep. and adv. bí (big).” The by- in bylaw, bystander, and bygone comes from this same root. “The original meaning was ‘about.’ In prepositions and adverbs this is weakened into a general expression of position at or near, as in before (at, near, or towards the front), behind, below, beneath, benorth, besouth, between, beyond.” In some cases it “renders an intransitive verb transitive, as in be-speak (speak about, for, or to). Hence it is used to form transitive vbs. on adjectives and substantives, as in dim be-dim, fool be-fool, madam be-madam.” All of the obscure, obsolete words that occur very seldom fill the rest of the page.

I had intended to simply make a cursory glance at the time periods of some of the entries. Shortly after, however, I realized that instead of just a definition of the prefix and a few examples, it listed out hundreds of words (mostly obsolete—Obs.) containing “be-.” Shortly after that, I realized that most of these obsolete words are actually hilarious, and began to read through the entire page, saving my favorites. The highlight reel follows.

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1. Forming derivative verbs, with sense of ‘around’:

(b.) from side to side (within a space), to and fro, in all directions, in all ways, in or through all its parts, thoroughly, as in bestir v., bejumble.

befrounce, v. Obs.: to frounce or toss about, touzle.

• 1581: All her hayre befrounced, rent and torne.

bejig, v.: to jig about.

• 1821: When they bejigg’d it ‘neath the steeple.

bequirtle, v. Obs.: to besprinkle.

• 1690: Whole quarts the chamber to bequirtle.

besperple, v. Obs.: to bespatter.

• 1529: The grounde..was all besperpled [Winch. besparcled; 1485 bespechled] with blode.

2. Forming intensive verbs, with sense of ‘thoroughly (extension of 1), soundly, much, conspicuously, to excess, ridiculously.’ (Some of these occur only in the past participle.)

bedunch, v. Obs.: to strike against.

• 1567: Daunce, and bedunche the grounde with fote.

besnowball, v.:

• 1611: ‘Twere a good deed, to … besnowball him with rotten egges.

betwattle, v. Obs. dial.: to bewilder.

• 1686: They are betwatled in their Understandings.
• 1844: Poor Bruin thus was sheer betwattled.

4. Making verbs transitive, by adding a prepositional relation: primarily ‘about,’ as in bespeak v., speak about (or for, to), bemoan v., moan about (or over); which sense can usually be detected under the various against, at, for, to, on, upon, over, by, etc. required by modern idiom:

becack, v. Obs.: to deposit ordure on.

• [Ordure, n.: excrement or dung.]
• 1618: He all my breast becackes.

bechirm, v. Obs.: to chirm (as birds) around.

• a1250: Hi me bichirmeþ [v.r. bichermet] and bigredeth.

bescumber, v. Obs.: to scumber on.

• [Scumber, n.: the dung of a dog or fox.]
• 1599: This..pedant Mortimers numbers With muck-pit Esculine filth bescumbers.
• 1631: Did Blocke bescumber Statutes white suite?

and its less appropriate cousin,

beshit, v. (also beshite) [Old English bescítan] = becack vb.

• (Obs. in polite use, but common in Middle English and early modern English literature).
• a1683: Flies which would the Deity beshite.
• 1727: I have been frighted, pumped, kicked..and beshitten.

5. Forming trans. verbs on adjectives and substantives, taken as complements of the predicate, meaning To make.

(c.) To call, to style, to dub with the title of, etc. Often with a depreciatory or contemptuous force.

be-blockhead, v.:

• 1768: He so be-blockheaded and be-blunderbust me about as was enough to hurry anybody and throw them off their guard.

6. Forming trans. verbs on substantives used in an instrumental relation; the primary idea being;

(a.) To surround, cover, or bedaub with, as in becloud v., to put clouds about, cover with clouds, bedew v.;

becoom, v.: to smear with coom.

• [Coom, n.: Soot, esp. that which forms about a fireplace, or settles as smuts from a smoky atmosphere. (Get your mind out of the gutter.)]
• 1882: A ship’s fireman all becoomed and besmoked.

bewimple, v. Obs.:

• 1393: Where lay be~wimpled a visage.

(b.) To affect with in any way, as in benight v., beguile n., befriend v.; In both sets there is often an accompanying notion of ‘thoroughly, excessively,’ as in 2.

befrumple, v. Obs.: to crease into frumples or clumsy folds.

• 1611: To hang forth loose, to sit bagging, flagging, or befrumpled, as an ouer-wide garment.

bemissionary, v.: to pester with missionaries.

• 1884: Till the end of his days he is bemissionaried by the society which has made him what he is.

beslipper, v.: to present with slippers.

• 1866: Poor men!..to be be-teapotted and be-slippered.

8. Examples of the capabilities of be- are seen in …

to be-Mary: to give us too much of ‘Mary,’

• 1812: The world has been much be-Mary’d, of late..we have innumerable sweet little Stanzas..ending with ‘my Mary.’

Also, these be- verbs tend to come in flocks, and appear to have a more humorous tone, as indicated by these (and many of the previous) examples:

• 1602: He that minds trishtrash..Him will I be-lish-lash.²
• 1863: Only a ‘small sin,’ a smug, be-furred, be-combed, be-scented, be-ribboned, be-lady-loved ‘little fox!’

And finally, even the grammar Nazis can get a kick out of a brief bout of beprefixed banter:

beparse, v.: to plague with parsing.

• 1880: Grammar that has so weighed down our poor beparsed English-speaking people.

becomma, v.: to sprinkle with commas.

• 1881: The senseless ‘be~commaing’ of many Shakespere texts.

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This concludes today’s episode of Misadventures in the English Language. Hope to see you again!

—Dan

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Cover image credit (which hasn’t been loading correctly): Jerome K. Moore