bit

bit · noun, verb¹

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*bʰeyd-“to split”
2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*bitô
3. Old English · inherited frombita“bit; fragment; morsel”
4. Middle English · inherited frombitte
5. English todaybit

From Middle English bitte, bite, from Old English bita (“bit; fragment; morsel”) and bite (“a bite; cut”), from Proto-Germanic *bitô and *bitiz; both from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to split”). More at bite. Cognates Cognate with West Frisian bit, Saterland Frisian Bit, Dutch bit, German Low German Beet, Biet, German Biss and Bissen, Danish bid, Swedish bit, Icelandic biti.

bit · verb, adjective²

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form. See bite. Replaced a former strong past tense, seen in Middle English bot and Old English bāt.

bit · noun³

Coined by John Tukey in 1946 as an abbreviation of binary digit, probably influenced by connotations of “small portion”. First used in print 1948 by Claude Shannon. Compare byte and nybble, with similar food associations.

Words from the same roots