beget

English

Etymology

From Middle English begeten , from Old English beġietan (“to get”), 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”).

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛt

Verb

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

1. To father; to sire; to produce (a child).
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Genesis 5:3:

     ¶ And Adam liued an hundred and thirtie yeeres, and begate a ſonne in his owne likeneſſe, after his image; and called his name Seth.

   • 2003, William H. Frist, Shirley Wilson, Good People Beget Good People: A Genealogy of the Frist Family, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 110:

     I believe good people beget good people. If you marry the right person, then you will have good children. But everywhere else in life, too, good people beget good people. In your work, when you hire good people, they, in turn, will hire good ...

2. To cause; to produce.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 2, in The History of Pendennis. , volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     How one’s thoughts will travel! and how quickly our wishes beget them!

   • 2019 May 12, Alex McLevy, “Westeros faces a disastrous final battle on the penultimate Game of Thrones (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club‎:

     Violence begets violence, and the only people still remaining will do the very thing that the living were fighting to preserve during the battle against the Night King: They’ll remember, and keep the memory of this bloodbath alive.

3. To bring forth.
   • 1614 November 10 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Beniamin Iohnson [i.e., Ben Jonson], Bartholmew Fayre: A Comedie, , London: I B for Robert Allot, , published 1631, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     If there bee neuer a Seruant-monſter i' the Fayre, who can helpe it, he ſayes ; nor a neſt of Antiques ?   Hee is loth to make Nature afraid in his Playes, like thoſe that beget Tales, Tempeſts, and ſuch like Drolleries, […]

   • 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).

4. (UK dialectal) To happen to; befall.

Derived terms

• begetter
• begetting
• begotten

Related terms

Translations

See also

• be born
• give birth

References

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