been

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bɪn/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

  • Homophone: bin
  • Rhymes: -ɪn
• (General American) (particularly common in the Great Lakes, Midwest) IPA^(key): /bɛn/
  • Homophone: Ben
  • Rhymes: -ɛn
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /biːn/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

  • Homophone: bean
  • Rhymes: -iːn
• (unstressed) IPA^(key): /bɨn/, /bɪ̈n/

been

1. past participle of be
2. (obsolete) plural simple present of be
   • 1584, George Peele, The Arraignment of Paris, I, ii

     My love is fair, my love is gay,

     As fresh as been the flowers in May;

   • c. 1608, William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, II

     Where when men been, there's seldom ease;

   • 1641, Ben Jonson, The Sad Shepherd, I, iii

     O Friar, those are faults that are not seen,

     Ours open, and of worse example been.

   • 1686, Edward Fairfax, transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne: Or, The Recovery of Jerusalem‎, 20, page 8:

     Some of green Boughs their slender Cabbins frame, / Some lodged were Tortoſa's streets about, / Of all the Hoſt the Chief of Worth and Name / Aſſembled been, a Senate grave and ſtout;

3. (Southern US) infinitive of be

been

1. (Britain dialectal) plural of bee

Vaux, Bert and Scott Golder. 2003. The Harvard Dialect Survey: been. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Linguistics Department.

• Bene, NEbE, bene, eben, neeb

From Dutch been, from Middle Dutch bêen, from Old Dutch bēn, from Proto-Germanic *bainą.

been (plural bene or beendere, diminutive beentjie)

1. leg
2. bone

• The plural beendere is used alternatively in the sense “bone”, especially collectively.

• penisbeen

• IPA^(key): /beːn/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: been
• Rhymes: -eːn

From Middle Dutch bêen, from Old Dutch bēn, from Proto-Germanic *bainą.

been n (plural benen, diminutive beentje n)

1. leg, limb of a person, horse (other animals' would have poten) and certain objects (again many have poten)

   De benen van een passer. ― The legs of a pair of compasses.

2. (mathematics) side, leg

   De benen van een hoek. ― The sides of an angle.

• The contemporary plural benen is derived from an analogy to other nouns with regular plurals. Originally, been was left unchanged in the plural; such use in preserved only in set phrases like op de been (“upright, standing, awake”).

been n (plural beenderen or benen, diminutive beentje n)

1. bone, constituent part of a skeleton.
2. (uncountable) bone, the chalky material bones are made of

• (bone): bot, knekel, knook

• Afrikaans: been

See the etymology of the main entry.

been

1. first-person singular present indicative of benen
2. imperative of benen

• bene

been

1. leg

• German Low German: Been

been

1. genitive and accusative singular of bee

From Old Dutch bēn, from Proto-Germanic *bainą.

bêen n

1. leg
2. foot
3. bone

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• bein (Limburgish)

• Dutch: been
• Limburgish: bein

• “been”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• “been”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929

From a conflation of Old English bēon and wesan, from Proto-Germanic *beuną and *wesaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewHeti and a conflation of *h₂wéseti and *h₁ésti.

• beon, boen, bean, ben, be
• (from *h₁ésti, rare) seen, sen

• (Early ME) IPA^(key): /bøːn/
• IPA^(key): /beːn/

been

1. to be
   • 1382 John Wycliffe, translation of the Bible (John 1:48)

     Bifor that Filip clepide thee, whanne thou were vndur the fige tree, Y saiy thee.

   • 1407, The Testimony of William Thorpe, pages 40–41

     ...Filip of Repintoun whilis he was a chanoun of Leycetre, Nycol Herforde, dane Geffrey of Pikeringe, monke of Biland and a maistir dyuynyte, and Ioon Purueye, and manye other whiche weren holden rightwise men and prudent...

• English: be (dialectal been)
• Scots: be

From Old English bēon, nominative plural form of bēo, from Proto-Germanic *bijōniz, nominative plural form of *bijǭ.

been

1. plural of bee

From Old English ġebēon, past participle of bēon (“to be”); equivalent to y- +‎ be +‎ -en.

• ybeen, ybe

been

1. past participle of been

• English: been
• Scots: been

From {with the -þ replaced with an -n leveled in from the past and subjunctive) Old English bēoþ, present plural of bēon (“to be”), from Proto-Germanic *biunþi, third-person present plural of *beuną (“to be, become”).

• be

been

1. Plural present indicative form of been

The usual plural form of been is aren in the North, been in the Midlands, and beth in the South; sind also existed, especially early on, but was not the predominant form in any area.

• English: been (obsolete as the plural)

From Old English bēon, present subjunctive plural of bēon (“to be”), from Proto-Germanic *biwīn, third-person present subjunctive plural of *beuną (“to be, become”).

been

1. Plural present subjunctive form of been

• English: be
• Scots: be

From Middle English ybeen, from Old English ġebēon, past participle of bēon (“to be”).

been

1. past participle of be