FromMiddle Englishbewar,be war,be ware, forms ofMiddle Englishben ware(“to be on one's guard, be vigilant”, literally“be ware”), equivalent tobe +ware orbe +aware. CompareOld Englishbewarian.
beware
- (defective, ambitransitive) To usecaution,pay attention to (used both with and withoutof).
1599 (first performance),William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act I, scene ii]:Beware the Ides of March.
The verb was traditionally used withoutof (e.g. "beware the ides of March", from Julius Caesar Act 1, scene 2, 15–19, by Shakespeare), but it is often used with the preposition today.
The verbbeware has become adefective verb and now lacks forms such as the third-person singular simple presentbewares and the simple pastbewared. It can only be used imperatively (Beware of the dog!), subjunctively (It's important that he beware of the dog), or as an infinitive (You must beware of the dog orThey told me to beware of the dog).
The inflected formsbewares,bewared, andbewaring are called obsolete in Fowler'sDictionary of Modern English Usage, along with the simple indicative "I beware". The formsbewares andbewared are very rarely found in modern texts, thoughbewaring is slightly less rare. These inflections are more likely to be found in very old texts.
The meanings of the obsolete inflected forms can be easily understood by replacing "beware" with the more modern equivalent consisting of a conjugated form of "be" and the word "wary". For example "bewares" means the same as "is wary", "bewared" the same as "was wary", etc.
use caution, pay attention (to)
- Arabic:حَذَارِ(ḥaḏāri),اِحْذَرْ (ar)(iḥḏar)
- Armenian:զգուշանալ (hy)(zgušanal),զգուշացի՛ր(zgušacʻír)
- Azerbaijani:saqınmaq(archaic)
- Bulgarian:внимавай (bg)(vnimavaj),пази се от(pazi se ot)
- Catalan:anar amb compte
- Chinese:
- Mandarin:小心 (zh)(xiǎoxīn)
- Danish:passe på,vogte sig,vare sig
- Esperanto:atenti
- Estonian:please add this translation if you can
- Finnish:varoa (fi)
- French:faire attention (fr)
- Galician:ollo (gl),mirar por,cavidar(archaic)
- Georgian:მორიდება(morideba),ფრთხილად ყოფნა(prtxilad q̇opna),გაფრთხილება(gaprtxileba)
- German:sichhüten (vor)
- Hungarian:óvakodik (hu)
- Icelandic:varast
- Ingrian:kavvoa
- Italian:temere (it),guardarsi (it),fare attenzione
- Latin:caveō (la),videsis,vide sis,sis vide
- Latvian:please add this translation if you can
- Lithuanian:please add this translation if you can
- Norwegian:passe seg (for)
- Polish:strzec się impf
- Portuguese:precaver-se,prestar atenção,tomar cuidado (pt)
- Romanian:(se)păzi (de)
- Russian:остерега́ться (ru) impf(osteregátʹsja)
- Spanish:tener cuidado,serprecavido
- Swedish:akta sig (för)
- Thai:ระวัง (th)(rá-wang)
- Ukrainian:стерегти́ся(sterehtýsja)
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beware
- (dated or formal)singularpresentsubjunctive ofbewaren
