Etymograph

English

be

Be comes from Middle English been ‘to be’, from Old English bēon ‘to be’, from Proto-Germanic *beuną ‘to be’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- ‘to be, become’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰuH-1‘to be’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰuHyéti1‘to grow, become’uncertain
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*beuną1‘to be’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*beun1reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150bēon1‘to be’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500been1‘to be’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1526be1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English be
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1526, [William Tyndale, The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible): “Rachel wepynge ffor her chyldren / and wolde nott…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰuH-Wiktionary, English be‘to be’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰuHyétiWiktionary, English be‘to grow, become’uncertain
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*beunąWiktionary, English be‘to be’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*beunWiktionary, English bereconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150bēonWiktionary, English be‘to be’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500beenWiktionary, English be‘to be’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1526beWiktionary, English be. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1526, [William Tyndale, The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible): “Rachel wepynge ffor her chyldren / and wolde nott…”

The story

Further etymology of be and its conjugated forms The various forms have three separate origins, which were mixed together at various times in the history of English.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with be, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- ‘to be, become, grow, appear’

  • power ← poer ← pooir ← potēre ← posse
  • possible ← possibilis ← possum ← *possom ← *som
  • future ← futur ← futūrus ← sum
  • present ← presenten ← presenter ← praesentō ← praesens
  • build ← bilden ← byldan ← *buþlijan ← *buþlą
  • improve ← improbō ← probō ← *proβāō ← *proβos
  • presence ← praesentia ← praesēns ← praesum ← sum
  • essential ← essentiālis ← essentia ← *essēns ← sum
  • bond ← bonde ← bōnda ← bóndi ← būend
  • bush ← *busċ ← *busk ← *buskaz
  • bound ← bownde ← búinn ← *būaną
  • physics ← phisik ← fisike ← physica ← φυσική

130 more relatives in the full family tree

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Another origin of be

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500be
  2. Englishtodaybe

A variant of by which goes back to Middle English be (variant of Middle English bi).

Another origin of be

  1. Russianmodernбэ‘the name of the Cyrillic script letter Б/б’
  2. Englishtodaybe

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Today it means

verb As an auxiliary verb: Used with past participles of verbs to form the passive voice.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “be”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- / be