beget
/biˈɡɛt/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.39 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "The King intends to beget a child within the next five years."
- "¶ And Adam liued an hundred and thirtie yeeres, and begate a ſonne in his owne likeneſſe, after his image; and called his name Seth."
- "This ogress too was begotten of the blood of Cain, whose brood had been doomed forever to the icy floods and freezing waters of the earth."
- "I believe good people beget good people. If you marry the right person, then you will have good children. But everywhere else in life, too, good people beget good people. In your work, when you hire good people, they, in turn, will hire good ..."
- "Wealth begets wealth; poverty begets poverty."
- "How one’s thoughts will travel! and how quickly our wishes beget them!"
Etymology
From Middle English begeten [influenced by Old Norse geta ("to get, to guess")], from Old English beġietan (“to get”), from Proto-Germanic *bigetaną (“to find, seize”), equivalent to be- + get. Cognate with Old Saxon bigetan (“to find, seize”), Old High German bigezan (“to gain, achieve, win, procure”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *gʰed-, begeten, beġietan, *bigetaną
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /biˈɡɛt/
- British English: /biˈɡɛt/
Usage
- Literary
- Transitive verb
- Obsolete
- British usage