"B" Word Origins

birdseed

Origin

A straightforward compound of "bird" and "seed" — seed meant for birds.

birdsong

Origin

A compound of "bird" and "song".

birdwoman

Origin

From bird + -woman.

Birgitte

Origin

Borrowed from Danish Birgitte and Norwegian Birgitte.

birk

Old English

A Northern English and Scots form of "birch", from Old English/Old Norse roots for the birch tree.

birl

Origin

Inherited from Middle English birlen.

biro

Origin · 1930

From the trademark Biro, named after László Bíró, the Hungarian-born inventor who patented the modern ballpoint pen in the late 1930s.

birr

Origin

From Middle English bir (“favorable or strong wind”), from Old English byre (“strong wind, storm”); cognate with Norwegian Nynorsk bør, Icelandic byrr (“sailing winds”), Albanian borë (“snow”), and Polish burza (“storm, thunderstorm”).

birth

Middle English

From Middle English birthe, borrowed from Old Norse burðr, ultimately from the same ancient root as the verb "to bear" — so birth literally means "the act of bearing (a child)".

birthday

Old English

From Old English gebyrddæg, a compound of "birth" and "day" — literally "day of birth".

birthmark

Origin

A compound of "birth" and "mark" — a mark present since birth.

birthplace

Origin

A compound of "birth" and "place".

birthright

Origin

A compound of "birth" and "right" — a right owed to someone from birth.

birthstead

Origin

From Middle English birth-sted, equivalent to birth + stead (“place, location”).

biryani

Persian

From Persian biryān ("roasted, fried"), passed into Hindi/Urdu and adopted into English through South Asian cuisine.

bis

Latin

A learned borrowing from Latin bis, meaning "twice".

Biscayne

Origin

From the region of Biscay in northern Spain, also lending its name to Biscayne Bay and Biscayne National Park in Florida.

biscotti

Italian

Borrowed from Italian biscotti, the plural of biscotto ("biscuit") — a relative of the English word "biscuit", both ultimately meaning "twice-cooked".

biscuit

Latin

From Old French bescuit, meaning "twice-cooked" (from Latin bis, "twice", plus coctus, "cooked") — describing bread baked a second time to dry it out for long storage.

bisect

Origin

From bi- (“bi-, two”) + Latin secāre (“to cut”).

bisexual

Origin · 1800

From "bi-" ("two") plus "sexual". Originally an 18th-century botanical term for plants with both male and female parts; it took on its modern meaning about human sexuality in the late 1800s through early sexology writing.

bish

Origin

A softened phonetic alteration of "bitch", influenced by African American speech patterns.

bishop

Latin

From Old English bisceop, from Latin episcopus ("overseer"), from Greek episkopos ("one who watches over"), from epi- ("over") + skopos ("watcher"). The same Greek root gives us words like "scope" and "telescope".

bishopric

Origin

From Middle English bischopriche, from Old English bisċoprīċe, equivalent to bishop + -ric (compare German Reich).

bismarck

German · 1800

Named after Otto von Bismarck, the 19th-century German chancellor — the pastry, the battleship, and the capital of North Dakota all trace their name to him.

Bismillah

Arabic

From Arabic bismi llāh, "in the name of God" — the opening words of the Islamic basmala formula recited before many daily actions.

Bison

Latin

From Latin bison ("wild ox"), likely itself borrowed from a Germanic word for the aurochs — making "bison" a distant relative of the word "wisent" (the European bison).

bisque

French

Borrowed from French bisque, possibly linked to the Bay of Biscay region.

bistro

French · 1880

From French bistro(t), first recorded around the 1880s meaning "tavern keeper", of uncertain regional dialect origin.

bit

Middle English

From Middle English bitte, bite, from Old English bita (“bit; fragment; morsel”) and bite (“a bite; cut”), from Proto-Germanic *bitô and *bitiz; both from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to split”). More at bite. Cognates Cognate with West Frisian bit, Saterland Frisian Bit, Dutch bit, German Low German Beet, Biet, German Biss and Bissen, Danish bid, Swedish bit, Icelandic biti.

bitch

Middle English

From Middle English biche, bicche, from Old English biċċe, from Proto-West Germanic *bikkjā, from Proto-Germanic *bikjǭ (“female dog”) (compare Norwegian bikkje (“dog, bitch”), Old Danish bikke (“bitch”)), from Proto-Germanic *bikjaną (“to thrust, attack”) (compare Old Norse bikkja (“to plunge into water”), Dutch bikken (“to hack”)). Related to bicker.

bitchy

Origin

Formed from "bitch" plus the adjective-forming suffix "-y".

bitcoin

Origin · 2008

Coined from "bit" (as in binary digit) plus "coin", by the pseudonymous creator known as Satoshi Nakamoto, first described in a 2008 white paper on peer-to-peer digital cash.

bite

Old English

From Old English bītan, from a very old Germanic root meaning "to split" — the same root that eventually gave us the word "bit".

bite me

Origin

Circa the 1980s in the United States, likely from the phrase bite my ass.

biter

Middle English

From Middle English biter, bitere, equivalent to bite + -er. Cognate with West Frisian biter (“biter”), Dutch bijter (“biter”), German Low German Bieter (“biter”), German Beißer (“biter”).

bitmap

Origin

From bit + map.

bitsy

Origin

Formed from "bits" plus the adjective suffix "-y".

bitten

Origin

The past participle of "bite", formed with the old "-en" ending.

bitter

Old English

From Old English biter, related to the verb "bite" — something bitter was originally thought of as tasting sharp enough to "bite" the tongue.

bitterly

Old English

From Old English biterlīce, formed from "bitter" plus the adverb suffix "-ly".

Bitterman

German

Variant of German Bittermann.

bittern

Origin

From Middle English bitour, botor, from Old French butor, from Gallo-Roman *butitaurus, a blend of Latin būtiō (“bittern”) and taurus (“bull, ox”).

bitterness

Old English

From Old English biternes, built from bitter plus the noun-forming suffix -ness.

bittersweet

Middle English

From Middle English bitterswete, a straightforward joining of bitter and sweet.

bitterweed

Origin

From bitter + weed.

bitumen

Origin

From Middle English bithumen, bitumen, from Latin bitūmen. Doublet of bitume.

bitzer

Origin

Unknown. Originally used of dogs. Perhaps from bits + -er, in reference to the dog's composition from multiple different "bits". The spelling with tz may be influenced from other names of breeds (e.g. spitz, shih tzu, etc.) or in imitation of German names. Compare also German Betze (“bitch, female dog”).