beleave

A merger of two Middle English verbs:

• beleven, from Old English belǣfan (“to leave, let remain”), from Proto-Germanic *bilaibijaną. Equivalent to be- +‎ leave.
• bliven, beliven (“to remain, stay”), from Old English belīfan (“to remain”), from Proto-Germanic *bilībaną. Hence belive (Etymology 1).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bɪˈliːv/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /bɪˈliv/, /bi-/, /bə-/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːv
• Homophone: believe
• Hyphenation: be‧leave

beleave (third-person singular simple present beleaves, present participle beleaving, simple past and past participle beleft)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To leave behind, abandon.

   Synonyms: desert, forsake; see also Thesaurus:abandon

2. (obsolete, intransitive) To be left; to remain.

   Synonyms: continue, stay; see also Thesaurus:remain

• leave be

From Middle English bileve, from Old English lēafa, from Proto-West Germanic *laubu.

• IPA^(key): /biːˈliːv/

beleave

1. belief

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 25