beon
- alternative form ofbeen(“to be”)
beon
- alternative form ofbeen(“bees”,plural ofbee)
FromProto-West Germanic*beun, fromProto-Germanic*beuną(“to be”), related tobūan(“to dwell”), ultimately fromProto-Indo-European*bʰew-,*bʰuH-. The past tense forms are fromProto-Germanic*wesaną (from which alsowesan), fromProto-Indo-European*h₂wes-.
bēon
- tobe;exist
- c. 992,Ælfric,"On the Greater Litany"
Sē ðe gōdbēon wile, clypiġe tō ðām þe ǣfre is gōd, þæt hē hine gōdne ġewyrċe.- Let the one who wishesto be good call to the one who is always good so that he [the good one] will make him [the wisher] good.
- late 9th century,King Alfred'stranslation ofThe Consolation of Philosophy
Þā cwæþ hē, "Wāst þū hwæt mann sīe?" Þā cwæþ iċ, "Iċ wāt þæt hitbiþ sāwol and līchama."- Then he said, "Do you know what a person is?" So I said, "I know it's a soul and a body."
- c. 992,Ælfric,"On the Lord's Ascension"
Eft hē cwæð, "Iċbēo mid ēow eallum dagum, ōð þisre worulde ġeendunge," sēðe lyfað and rīxað mid þām Ælmihtiġan Fæder and ðām Hālġum Gāste ā on ēċnysse. Āmen.- Again he said, "I willbe with you on all days, until the ending of this world," who liveth and reigneth with the Almighty Father and the Holy Ghost ever to eternity. Amen.
- c. 992,Ælfric, "The Passion of the Blessed Stephen Protomartyr"
Ǣlċ lofbið on ende ġesungen.- All praise willbe sung at the end.
- Blickling Homilies,"St. Andrew"
Wēbēoþ mid þē swā hwæder swā þū færest.- We'llbe with you wherever yougo.
- tobecome
- The verbsbēon andwesan both mean tobe, but in different circumstances. For most purposes,wesan is used;bēon is used for what is known as the "gnomic present" and the future tense of tobe.
- The gnomic present, in short, refers to anything which is a general truth, likeWinterbiþ ċealdost ("Winteris coldest"), orFēower sīðum seofonbēoþ eahta and twēntiġ ("Four times sevenis (lit. "are") twenty-eight"). Generally, statements about the self will not be gnomic. For example, although it may seem that a statement likeIam a person is always true, such a statement is nonetheless rendered withwesan:Iċeom mann.
- Tobe is the only verb in Old English for which the future tense may be indicated with morphology instead of adverbs or context clues, and for this purpose,bēon is used. So,Iam the king is rendered asIċeom sē cyning, butIwill be the king is rendered asIċbēo sē cyning. Note thatbēon isnot used for any other verb's future tense; bothIsee it andIwill see it are written asIċ hitġesēo.
- Bothbēon andwesan share past tense forms.
- Bothbēon andwesan are copulative verbs, which means they are not transitive and do not take a direct object. Because of this, predicate nouns and adjectives will be in thenominative case; for example:Hēois iċ ("Sheis I"), not*Hēois mē ("Sheis me").
| infinitive | bēon | bēonne |
|---|
| indicative mood | present tense | past tense |
|---|
| first person singular | bēo | — |
|---|
| second person singular | bist | — |
|---|
| third person singular | biþ | — |
|---|
| plural | bēoþ | — |
|---|
| subjunctive | present tense | past tense |
|---|
| singular | bēo | — |
|---|
| plural | bēon | — |
|---|
| imperative | |
|---|
| singular | bēo |
|---|
| plural | bēoþ |
|---|
| participle | present | past |
|---|
| bēonde | (ġe)bēon |
|---|
See the etymology of the correspondinglemma form.
bēon
- inflection ofbēo:
- accusative/genitive/dativesingular
- nominative/accusativeplural
