The story
- Old English · inherited frombīspel
- Middle English · inherited frombispel
- English todaybispel
From Middle English bispel, from Old English bīspel, biġspel (“proverb, parable, example, story”), from bī- (“by”) + spel (“talk, story”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Biespil (“example”), Middle Dutch bijspel (“proverb, parable”), German Low German Bispeel (“example”), German Beispiel (“example”). More at byspel, by-, spell.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.