Etymology

bet

B3E1T1

Today it means: A wager, an agreement between two parties that a stake (usually money) will be paid by the loser to the winner (the winner being the one who correctly forecast the outcome of an event). Full definition →

Middle English bet ← Old English bet ← Old French abet
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bet · noun, verb, interjection1

  1. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*baitijan“to bait, entice”
  2. Old French · derived fromabeter“to entice”
  3. Old French · derived fromabet“incitement to evil”
  4. Middle English · inherited fromabet
  5. Old English · inherited frombet
  6. Middle English · inherited frombet“something better, advantage, luck”
  7. English todaybet

From 16th-century criminal slang, perhaps from Middle English bet (“something better, advantage, luck”), from Old English bet, bett (“better”, adverb); or, alternatively from abet, from Middle English abet, abette, from Old French abet (“incitement to evil”), from Old French abeter (“to entice”), from a- (“to”) + beter (“hound on, urge, to bait”); ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *baitijan (“to bait, entice”), related to Old English bǣtan (“to bait”). More at abet.

bet · noun2

  1. Hebrew · borrowed fromבית
  2. English todaybet

From Hebrew בית (bēt).

bet · preposition3

Abbreviation.

BET · noun, proper noun4

Named after its inventors Brunauer, Emmett and Teller.

Words from the same roots

Old Frenchabeter all →

abetabettorabetment

Hebrewבית all →

beth hamidrash

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.