General
ow bist
What does ow bist mean?
'How are you?' — a Black Country greeting that's basically a fossil of Early Modern English. 'Bist' is the old second-person singular of 'to be' (as in 'thou bist'), which standard English dropped centuries ago but the Black Country kept. Classic reply is 'bostin', ta.'
"Ow bist, our kid? Ay sid yer fer ages."
Frequently asked questions
What does ow bist mean?
It's a Black Country greeting meaning 'how are you?'
How do you use ow bist in a sentence?
"Ow bist, our kid? All right?"
Where does ow bist come from?
It's from the Black Country dialect of the West Midlands, where 'bist' is a survival of an older English form of the verb 'to be.'
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