Etymology

begrave

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Today it means: To bury. Full definition →

Middle English begraven ← Old English begrafan ← Proto-Germanic *bigrabaną
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*bigrabaną“to dig around, bury”
  2. Old English · inherited frombegrafan“to bury”
  3. Middle English · inherited frombegraven
  4. English todaybegrave

From Middle English begraven, from Old English begrafan (“to bury”), from Proto-Germanic *bigrabaną (“to dig around, bury”), equivalent to be- + grave. Cognate with Saterland Frisian begreeuwe (“to bury”), West Frisian begrave (“to bury”), Dutch begraven (“to bury”), German begraben (“to bury”), Danish begrave (“to bury”), Swedish begrava (“to bury”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌲𐍂𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌽 (bigraban, “to dig around”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.