The story
- Old English · inherited frombeflēogan“to fly upon”
- Middle English · inherited frombiflien
- English todaybefly
From Middle English biflien, from Old English beflēogan (“to fly upon”), equivalent be- + fly. Cognate with Dutch bevliegen, German befliegen (“to fly on”), Danish beflyve (“to operate”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.