Etymology

bedrive

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Today it means: To drive or toss about; drive out, off, back, or away; defeat. Full definition →

Middle English bidriven ← Old English bedrīfan ← Proto-West Germanic *bidrīban
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The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*bidrīban
  2. Old English · inherited frombedrīfan“to drive; beat; strike; assail; follow up; pursue; surround; cover”
  3. Middle English · inherited frombidriven
  4. English todaybedrive

From Middle English bidriven, from Old English bedrīfan (“to drive; beat; strike; assail; follow up; pursue; surround; cover”), from Proto-West Germanic *bidrīban, equivalent to be- + drive. Cognate with Dutch bedrijven (“to commit, perpetrate”), German betreiben (“to operate, conduct, pursue”), Swedish bedriva (“to manage, carry on, prosecute”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.