bist
English
Etymology
From Middle English bist, beest, best, from Old English bist ("(thou) art"; second person singular of bēon (“to be”)), from Proto-Germanic *biusi (“(thou) art”), equivalent to be + -est. Cognate with West Frisian bist (“(thou) art”), Low German büst (“(thou) art”), German bist (“(thou) art”).
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -ɪst
Verb
bist
- (UK dialectal, Black Country, Bristol, West Country, Northern England) Used to form the second person singular of be.
- 1875, Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor, Punch:
- Thee bist rayther too much a feelosofer, I be afeard, for me.
- 1904, Henry Branch, Cotswold and vale:
- Lookee, thee bist purty, my love; lookee, thee bist purty: thee hast dove's eyes betwix thy locks; thy locks be like a flock o' ship fur thickedness.
- Where bist goin'.
- Where are you going?
- How bist?
- How are you?
Dutch
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
German
Etymology
From Old High German bist. Cognate to Middle Dutch bes, best,[1] dialectal English bist, beest.
German bist has two sources:
- a form based on Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésti (“(you) are (sg.)”)
- an initial b- that was added to the word under influence of verb forms based on Proto-Germanic *beuną (as in Old English beon)[2]
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bɪst/
audio (file) audio (file)
References
- A. van Loey, Schönfeld's Historische Grammatica van het Nederlands, 8. druk 1970, →ISBN; §147a
- Friedrich Kluge (1989) “bin”, in Elmar Seebold, editor, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the German Language] (in German), 22nd edition, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN
Middle English
Etymology
From Old English bist ("(thou) art"; second person singular of bēon (“to be”)), from Proto-Germanic *biusi (“(thou) art”), equivalent to been + -est.
Usage notes
This form is less common than art for the second-person singular.
Old English
Old High German
West Frisian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bɪst/
Etymology 1
From Old Frisian bist, second person singular indicative of wesa (“to be”). Cognate with English bist, German bist.
Noun
Alternative forms
Derived terms
Further reading
- “beest”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
Yagnobi
Further reading
- Ronald Emmerick (1992) “Iranian”, in Jadranka Gvozdanović, editor, Indo-European Numerals, Mouton de Gruyter, , →ISBN, page 312