Etymograph

English

ben

Ben comes from Middle English ben, a variant of binne ‘within’, from Old English binnan ‘within’, from bi- + innan ‘within’.

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150innan1‘within’
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150binnan2‘within’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500binne2‘within’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ben2
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1972ben2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Old English binnan
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English ben
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1972, George Mackay Brown, Greenvoe: “Bert Kerston was awakened by a steady tap on…”.

Lineage

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150innanWiktionary, Old English binnan‘within’
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150binnanWiktionary, English ben‘within’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500binneWiktionary, English ben‘within’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500benWiktionary, English ben
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1972benWiktionary, English ben. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1972, George Mackay Brown, Greenvoe: “Bert Kerston was awakened by a steady tap on…”

Every English word from Old English innan

Another origin of ben

  1. Arabicc. 500–presentبَنَانbanān‘finger’uncertain
  2. Arabicc. 500–presentبَانbān‘ben tree’uncertain
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500been
  4. Englishtodayben

From Middle English been, from Old French and Medieval Latin, probably from a North African pronunciation of Arabic بَان (bān, “ben tree”).

Another origin of ben

  1. Arabicc. 500–presentبِنbin
  2. Englishtodayben

Another origin of ben

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bn̥dʰéh₂reconstructed
  2. Proto-Celticc. 1300–800 BCE*bandā‘peak, top’reconstructed
  3. Old Irishc. 600–900benn‘peak, point, pinnacle’
  4. Scottish Gaelicmodernbeinn‘pinnacle’
  5. Scotsc. 1450–presentben
  6. Englishtodayben

Today it means

prep In, into.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “ben”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Old English binnan. 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 / Old English innan / ben

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