Etymology

beget

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Today it means: To produce or bring forth (a child); to be a parent of; to father or sire. Full definition →

Middle English begeten ← Old English beġietan ← Proto-Germanic *bigetaną
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*bigetaną“to find, seize”
  2. Old English · derived frombeġietan“to get”
  3. Middle English · inherited frombegeten
  4. English todaybeget

From Middle English begeten [influenced by Old Norse geta ("to get, to guess")], 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”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.