beget

From Middle English begeten, biȝeten, from Old English beġietan (“to get, find, acquire, attain, receive, take, seize, happen, beget”), [influenced by Old Norse geta ("to get, to guess")] from Proto-Germanic *bigetaną (“to find, seize”), equivalent to be- +‎ get. Cognate with Old Saxon bigetan (“to find, seize”), Old High German bigezan (“to gain, achieve, win, procure”).

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /biˈɡɛt/, /bɪˈɡɛt/, /bəˈɡɛt/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛt

beget (third-person singular simple present begets, present participle begetting, simple past begot or begat, past participle begotten) (transitive)

1. To father; to sire; to produce (a child).
2. To cause; to produce.
3. (Britain dialectal) To happen to; befall.
4. To bring forth.

• 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981:

  , Genesis 5:3

  And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: […]

• 2012 February 1, Kathy Gilbert, “Pitching In”, in Chatter Chattanooga‎, retrieved 2012-09-29:

  Rugby football was created in the early 1800s at England’s all-boys Rugby School. The sport begat American football, Gaelic football, Australian rules football and Association football (aka soccer).

• begettal, ill-begotten, misbegotten, unbegot, unbegotten, forebegotten

• sire

• beget in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• beget in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.