beget
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: béget
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”).
Pronunciation
Verb
beget (third-person singular simple present begets, present participle begetting, simple past begot or (archaic) begat, past participle begotten or (rare) begot) (transitive)
- To father; to sire; to produce (a child).
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 5:3:
- ¶ And Adam liued an hundred and thirtie yeeres, and begate a ſonne in his owne likeneſſe, after his image; and called his name Seth.
- 2003, William H. Frist, Shirley Wilson, Good People Beget Good People: A Genealogy of the Frist Family, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 110:
- 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 ...
- To cause; to produce.
- 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 2, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
- How one’s thoughts will travel! and how quickly our wishes beget them!
- 2019 May 12, Alex McLevy, “Westeros faces a disastrous final battle on the penultimate Game of Thrones (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 15 May 2019:
- Violence begets violence, and the only people still remaining will do the very thing that the living were fighting to preserve during the battle against the Night King: They’ll remember, and keep the memory of this bloodbath alive.
- To bring forth.
- 1614 November 10 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Beniamin Iohnson [i.e., Ben Jonson], Bartholmew Fayre: A Comedie, […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Robert Allot, […], published 1631, →OCLC, (please specify the page):
- If there bee neuer a Seruant-monſter i' the Fayre, who can helpe it, he ſayes ; nor a neſt of Antiques ? Hee is loth to make Nature afraid in his Playes, like thoſe that beget Tales, Tempeſts, and ſuch like Drolleries, […]
- (UK dialectal) To happen to; befall.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
father; sire; produce (a child) — see procreate
cause, produce
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procreate
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also
References
- “beget”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “beget”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
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