The story
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*biusi“(thou) art”
- Old English · inherited frombist
- Middle English · inherited frombist
- English todaybist
From Middle English bist, beest, best, from Old English bist ("(thou) art"; second person singular of bēon (“to be”)), from Proto-Germanic *biusi (“(thou) art”), equivalent to be + -est. Cognate with West Frisian bist (“(thou) art”), Low German büst (“(thou) art”), German bist (“(thou) art”).
Words from the same roots
Old Englishbist all →
beest
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.