Etymology

bewake

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Today it means: To watch; keep watch over; guard. Full definition →

Middle English bewaken ← Old English bewacian
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited frombewacian“to watch, keep watch over”
  2. Middle English · inherited frombewaken“to watch”
  3. English todaybewake

From Middle English bewaken (“to watch”), from Old English bewacian (“to watch, keep watch over”), equivalent to be- + wake. Cognate with Dutch bewaken, German bewachen, Swedish bevaka, Danish bevåge.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.