beget
English
Etymology
From Middle English begeten, biȝeten, from Old English beġietan (“to get, find, acquire, attain, receive, take, seize, happen, beget”), from Proto-Germanic *bigetaną (“to find, seize”), equivalent to be- + get. Cognate with Old Saxon bigitan (“to find, seize”), Old High German bigezan (“to gain, achieve, win, procure”) (German begatten (“to mate, copulate, beget”)).
Pronunciation
Verb
beget (third-person singular simple present begets, present participle begetting, simple past begot or archaic, begat, past participle begotten)
- To cause; to produce.
- To procreate; to father (rarely: to mother); to get with child.
- (UK dialectal) To happen to; befall.
Quotations
- 1611, King James Version of the Bible (Authorized Version)[1], Genesis 5:3
- And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
- 2012 February 1, Kathy Gilbert, “Pitching In”, Chatter Chattanooga, accessed on 2012-09-29:
- Rugby football was created in the early 1800s at England’s all-boys Rugby School. The sport begat American football, Gaelic football, Australian rules football and Association football (aka soccer).
Translations
to cause, to produce
to procreate
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
Related terms
- begettal, unbegot, unbegotten
See also
References
- beget in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
- beget in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913