betide
/bəˈtaɪd/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.06 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
Often used in a prediction (chiefly in woe betide) or a wish: to happen to (someone or something); to befall.
Dated; Literary; Transitive verb
verb
Chiefly in the third person: to happen; to take place; to bechance, to befall.
Dated; Intransitive verb; Literary
Example Sentences
- "Whether good or ill betide you, trust in yourself."
- "Why wayle we then? why weary we the Gods with playnts, / As if ſome euill were to her betight? / She raignes a goddeſſe now emong the ſaintes, / That whilome was the ſaynt of ſhepheardes light: / And is enſtalled nowe in heauens hight."
- "Why, how now, countrymen! Why flock you thus to me in multitudes? What accident's betided to the Jews?"
- "More health and happines betide my liege, / Then can my care tunde tongue deliuer him."
- "But woe betide the wandering wight, / That treads its circle in the night."
- "Ill betide those foul birds that delight to file their own nest, and disgust the ear with perpetual discord of ill-omened croak."
Etymology
From Middle English bityden [and other forms]; from bi- (prefix forming verbs, usually with a completive, figurative, or intensive sense) + tyden (“to come about, happen, occur; to befall, become of, happen to (someone); to be the fate of (someone); to await (someone); to fare, get along”); tyden is derived from Old English tīdan (“to befall, betide, happen”), related to tīd (“time; season; hour”) (both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂- (“to divide, share”) or its extended form *deh₂-y-, whence *dh₂ítis (“time”)) + -an (suffix forming the infinitive of most verbs). The English word is analysable as be- + tide (“(obsolete) to happen, occur”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /bəˈtaɪd/
- British English: /bɪˈtaɪd/
Usage
Inflected Forms
betides (present, singular)
betiding (participle, present)
betid (participle, past)
betid (past)
betided (participle, past)
betided (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
betided (first person, past)
betid (first person, past)
betidest (archaic, present)
betided (past, second person)