The story
- Old English · inherited frombehēawan“to cut, chip, chop, beat, cut off from, deprive of”
- Middle English · inherited frombehewen
- English todaybehew
From Middle English behewen, from Old English behēawan (“to cut, chip, chop, beat, cut off from, deprive of”), equivalent to be- + hew.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.