beer
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Etymology 1
From Middle English bere, from Old English bēor (“beer”) (Oxford OED notes: "rare, except in poetry"), from Proto-West Germanic *beuʀ, from Proto-Germanic *beuzą (“beer”) (putatively from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeusóm), meaning “brewer's yeast”.
However, also see the "beer" entry on OED (q.v.), which links a connection to monastic Vulgar Latin *biber (“a drink, beverage”), from Latin bibere (“to drink”). Samuel Johnson in his famous 18th-century A Dictionary of the English Language guessed it was from (unattested) Welsh *bîr; he distinguished it in his time from ale — the ancient usual word — by beer being older-aged and/or smaller.
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Bjoor, West Frisian bier, German Low German Beer, Dutch bier, German Bier, Icelandic bjór (“beer”).
Pronunciation
- (UK, General Australian) IPA(key): /bɪə/
Audio (UK): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file)
- (US) IPA(key): /bɪɚ/, /bɪɹ/
- (cheer–chair merger) IPA(key): /bɛə/
- Homophones: bier, bere, bear (New Zealand, cheer–chair merger)
- Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
Noun
beer (countable and uncountable, plural beers)
- (uncountable) An alcoholic drink fermented from starch material, commonly barley malt; often with hops or some other substance (like gruit) to impart a bitter flavor.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:beer
- Beer is brewed all over the world.
- 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
- “ […] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like
Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […] ”
- (uncountable) A fermented extract of the roots and other parts of various plants, as spruce, ginger, sassafras, etc.
- (uncountable) A solution produced by steeping plant materials in water or another fluid.
- (countable) A glass, bottle, or can of any of the above beverages.
- I bought a few beers from the shop for the party.
- Can I buy you a beer?
- I'd like two beers and a glass of white wine.
- (countable) A variety of the above beverages.
- Pilsner is one of the most commonly served beers in Europe.
- I haven't tried this beer before.
Derived terms
Terms derived from beer (noun)
- barley beer
- beauty is in the eye of the beer holder
- beerage
- beeraholic
- beeramid
- beer and pretzels game
- beer and skittles
- beer baby
- beer bar
- beer baron
- beer bash
- beer-bellied
- beer belly
- beer bike
- beer blast
- beer bong
- beer bottle
- beer bread
- beer-bust
- beer-butt chicken
- beer can
- beer-can chicken
- beer cellar
- beer cheese
- beer darts
- beer die
- beered-up
- beeregar
- beer engine
- beerfest
- beer flight
- beer frame
- beer fridge
- beerful
- beer garden
- beergarita
- Beergate
- beer glass
- beer-glass
- beer goggles
- beer-gut
- beer gut
- beer hall
- beer hand
- beer hat
- beerhead
- beer helmet
- beerhound
- beerhouse
- beerily
- beerish
- beer knot
- beer league
- beer leaguer
- beerless
- beer lever
- beerlike
- beer line
- beer lore
- beer-lore
- beermaker
- beermaking
- beer mat
- beer mile
- beer money
- beermonger
- beer muscles
- beer mustard
- beer nut
- beer o'clock
- beerocracy
- beerocrat
- beer paddle
- beer parlor
- beer parlour
- beer pong
- beerpot
- beer pull
- beer run
- beershop
- beersicle
- beer snake
- beer soup
- beer stick
- beerstone
- beertail
- beertender
- beer tent
- beer ticket
- beertini
- beer up
- Beervana
- beerware
- beer wench
- beer wort
- beer-wort
- beerwort
- beery
- birch beer
- black beer
- bock beer
- buttered beer
- champagne taste on a beer billfold
- champagne taste on a beer budget
- champagne taste on a beer pocketbook
- champagne taste on a beer salary
- champagne taste on a beer wallet
- chowder beer
- coldbeer
- country beer
- craft beer
- cry in one's beer
- cry into one's beer
- ear beer
- egg in one's beer
- flight of beer
- free as in beer
- ginger beer
- gruitbeer
- guest beer
- have no fear of ice cold beer
- hold my beer
- ice beer
- kaffir beer
- keg beer
- lager-beer
- life is not all beer and skittles
- malt beer
- matai beer
- microbeer
- near beer
- needle beer
- nonbeer
- nose beer
- October beer
- root beer
- root beer float
- session beer
- silver beer
- skittles and beer
- sky beer
- small beer
- smoked beer
- spruce beer
- steam beer
- table beer
- weep in one's beer
- weep into one's beer
- weiss beer
- wheat beer
Descendants
Translations
alcoholic drink made of malt
| ||||||||||||
drink made from roots
|
solution produced by steeping plant materials
glass of beer
|
variety of these beverages
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
|
Verb
beer (third-person singular simple present beers, present participle beering, simple past and past participle beered)
- (informal, transitive) To give beer to (someone).
- 1870, Sidney Daryl, His First Brief. A Comedietta in Clement Scott, Drawing-room Plays and Parlour Pantomimes, Robson and Sons, pages 303–304:
- No doubt he then can feed us, wine us, beer us, And cook us something that can warm and cheer us.
- 2010, Steve Brezenhoff, The Absolute Value of -1, Carolrhoda Lab, page 121:
- “Beer me!” said Goody. “Also your weed is shit. Where’s the good stuff, dude?”
- 2013, Janet E. Cameron, Cinnamon Toast and the End of the World, Hatchette Books Ireland, page 124:
- I heard Patty Marsh yelling, ‘Beer him, Eleanor!’
- 2013, R. D. Power, Forbidden, page 39:
- “Beer me!” To his astonishment she obeyed his command, appearing a minute later with a glass of beer and a wry smile.
- 1870, Sidney Daryl, His First Brief. A Comedietta in Clement Scott, Drawing-room Plays and Parlour Pantomimes, Robson and Sons, pages 303–304:
- (informal, intransitive) To drink beer.
- 2008, Charles Foran, Join the Revolution, Comrade: Journeys and Essays, page 83:
- In Japan, students on a Friday night announce “Let's beer!”
Etymology 2
From Middle English beere, equivalent to be + -er.
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈbi.ɚ/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈbiː.ə/
Noun
beer (plural beers)
- (nonstandard) One who is or exists.
- 1990, Budge Wilson, “Be-ers and Doers”, in The leaving, and other stories:
- That meant, among other things, that he was going to be a fast-moving doer. And even when he was three or four, it wasn't hard for me to know that this wasn't going to be easy. Because Albert was a beer. Born that way.
Alternative forms
Related terms
Further reading
- “Sumerian beer” from Language Log, 2022-04-04
Anagrams
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Dutch beer, from Proto-Germanic *berô.
Noun
Etymology 2
From Dutch beer, from Proto-West Germanic *bair.
Noun
beer (plural bere)
- boar (male swine)
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle Dutch bēre, from Old Dutch *bero, from Proto-West Germanic *berō, from Proto-Germanic *berô.
Noun
beer m (plural beren, diminutive beertje n)
- a bear, any member of the family Ursidae
- De beer drinkt bier.
- The bear drinks beer.
- (figurative) a person who is physically impressive and/or crude
- Wat een beer van een vent daar voorin, he?
- What a bear of a guy there in front, huh?
Derived terms
- bere-
- berenbijt
- berenklauw
- berenjacht
- berenkuil
- berenleider
- berenmarkt
- berenmuts
- beren op de weg zien
- berentemmer
- berenval
- berin
- brombeer
- dansbeer
- gummybeer
- knuffelbeer
- teddybeer
animal species
Descendants
Etymology 2
From Middle Dutch bêer, from Old Dutch *bēr, from Proto-West Germanic *bair.
Noun
beer m (plural beren, diminutive beertje n)
- boar (male swine)
- De kinderboerderij heeft een aantal zeugen en maar één beer.
- The petting zoo has a number of sows and only one boar.
- buttress; protective external construction, notably against ice or supporting the weight of the main building
- a boar-shaped type of battering ram
- a male badger
Derived terms
Descendants
- Afrikaans: beer
Etymology 3
From Middle Dutch bere, from Old Dutch [Term?], from a derivative of Proto-West Germanic *bermō (“yeast”), related to Old English beorma, Albanian burmë.
Noun
beer m (plural beren, diminutive beertje n)
- (now dialectal) liquid, notably human manure (excrement gathered in a pit to fertilize)
- Wie doet er nu beer in zijn bier? Ik haat beer!
- Who in the world would put liquid manure in his beer? I hate manure!
Derived terms
Etymology 4
Borrowed from German Bär. Cognate to etymology 1.
Noun
beer m (plural beren)
- (university slang) debt
- Synonym: schuld
- Door haar gokverslaving zat ze met een enorme beer opgescheept.
- Due to her gambling addiction she was saddled with an enormous debt.
- (university slang) creditor (one to whom one owes debt)
- Synonym: schuldeiser
- Henry zag niet zijn beren op de weg, maar wel bij hem op de stoep.
- Henry didn't see his creditors on the road, but he did see them on his doorstep.
References
- M. J. Koenen & J. Endepols, Verklarend Handwoordenboek der Nederlandse Taal (tevens Vreemde-woordentolk), Groningen, Wolters-Noordhoff, 1969 (26th edition) [Dutch dictionary in Dutch]
Verb
beer
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle Low German bêr, from Old Saxon bior, from Proto-West Germanic *beuʀ, from Proto-Germanic *beuzą.
Alternative forms
Noun
beer n
Etymology 2
From Middle Dutch bere, from Old Dutch bēro, from Proto-West Germanic *bair.
Alternative forms
Noun
beer m
- boar (male swine)
Related terms
- zoog (“female swine”)
Etymology 3
From Middle High German ber, from Old High German beri. Alternatively from Middle Dutch bere, from Old Dutch *beri. Both ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *baʀi, from Proto-Germanic *bazją, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂-.
Alternative forms
- bier, bieër
Noun
beer f
Etymology
From Old Dutch *bēr, from Proto-West Germanic *bair.
Noun
bêer m
Inflection
This noun needs an inflection-table template.
Descendants
Further reading
- “beer”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
- Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “bere (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page bere
Alternative forms
Etymology
Verb
beer
- (transitive) to open
- (intransitive) to open
- (chiefly) to pant; to breathe heavily
- (figuratively) to desire; to lust for
Conjugation
This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. This verb has irregularities in its conjugation. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.
| simple | compound | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| infinitive | beer | avoir beé | |||||
| gerund | en beant | gerund of avoir + past participle | |||||
| present participle | beant | ||||||
| past participle | beé | ||||||
| person | singular | plural | |||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | jo | tu | il | nos | vos | il | |
| simple tenses |
present | be | bees | bee | beons | beez | beent |
| imperfect | beoie, beeie, beoe, beeve | beoies, beeies, beoes, beeves | beoit, beeit, beot, beeve | beïiens, beïens | beïiez, beïez | beoient, beeient, beoent, beevent | |
| preterite | beai | beas | bea | beames | beastes | beerent | |
| future | beerai | beeras | beera | beerons | beeroiz, beereiz, beerez | beeront | |
| conditional | beeroie, beereie | beeroies, beereies | beeroit, beereit | beeriiens, beeriens | beeriiez, beeriez | beeroient, beereient | |
| compound tenses |
present perfect | present tense of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | imperfect tense of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| past anterior | preterite tense of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | future tense of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | conditional tense of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que jo | que tu | qu’il | que nos | que vos | qu’il | |
| simple tenses |
present | be | bez | bet | beons | beez | beent |
| imperfect | beasse | beasses | beast | beïssons, beïssiens | beïssoiz, beïssez, beïssiez | beassent | |
| compound tenses |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | tu | – | nos | vos | – | |
| — | bee | — | beons | beez | — | ||
Derived terms
Descendants
References
- Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) (beer)
Etymology 1
From Proto-Cushitic *baar-, from Proto-Afroasiatic *bur-. Cognates include Afar baaxo, Saho baarho, Arabic بَرّ (barr), Hebrew בַּר (bar), and Sabaean 𐩨𐩧 (br).
Noun
beer ?
Etymology 2
Noun
beer ?
References
- Puglielli, Annarita, Mansuur, Cabdalla Cumar (2012) “beer”, in Qaamuuska Af-Soomaliga, Rome: RomaTrE-Press, →ISBN, page 101
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