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Origin and history of bide

bide(v.)

Middle English biden, from Old English bidan "to stay, continue, live, remain," also "to trust, rely," from Proto-Germanic *bidan "to await" (source also of Old Norse biða, Old Saxon bidan, Old Frisian bidia, Middle Dutch biden, Old High German bitan, Gothic beidan "to wait"), which is of uncertain origin. According to Watkins possibly from PIE root *bheidh- "to trust, confide, persuade" (via notion of "to await trustingly").

Frequent in Middle English (to bide on live was "stay alive;" bide in bay was "stand at bay"). It was preserved in Scotland and northern England, displaced elsewhere by abide in all senses except in the expression bide (one's) time. "I Bide My Time" is said to be "the motto of the earls of Loudon" in a Scottish context [1806, in a note to "Poetical Words of Sir David Lyndsay"], and it may owe its popularity to Scott's significant use of it in "The Bride of Lammermoor":

Ravenswood, who had assumed the disguise of a sewer upon the occasion, answered, in a stern voice, "I bide my time;" and at the same moment a bull's head, the ancient symbol of death, was placed upon the table. The explosion of the conspiracy took place upon the signal, and the usurper and his followers were put to death.

Related: Bided; biding.

Entries linking to bide

abide(v.)

Middle English abiden, from Old English abidan, gebidan "remain, wait, wait for, delay, remain behind," from ge- completive prefix (denoting onward motion; see a- (1)) + bidan "bide, remain, wait, dwell" (see bide).

Originally intransitive (with genitive of the object: we abidon his "we waited for him"); the transitive senses of "endure, sustain, stay firm under," also "tolerate, bear, put up with" (now usually with a negative) are from c. 1200. To abide with "stay with (someone); live with; remain in the service of" is from c. 1300. 

Related: Abided; abiding. The historical conjugation was abide, abode, abidden, but in Modern English the formation generally is weak.

bidden

past participle of bid and bide.

*bheidh-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to trust, confide, persuade."

It might form all or part of: abide; abode; affiance; affidavit; auto-da-fe; bide; bona fide; confederate; confidant; confide; confidence; confident; defiance; defy; diffidence; diffident; faith; fealty; federal; federate; federation; fiancee; fideism; fidelity; fiducial; fiduciary; infidel; infidelity; nullifidian; perfidy; solifidian.

It might also be the source of: Greek pistis "faith, confidence, honesty;" Latin fides "trust, faith, confidence, reliance, credence, belief;" Albanian be "oath," bindem "to be convinced, believe;" Old Church Slavonic beda "distress, necessity," bediti "to force, persuade;" Old English biddan "to ask, beg, pray," German bitten "to ask."

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    stay
    mid-15c., steien, transitive, "detain, hold back," from Old French estai-, stem of estare "to stay or stand," from Latin stare "to stand, stand still, remain standing; be upright, be erect; stand firm, stand in battle; abide; be unmovable; be motionless; remain, tarry, linger; ta
    outlive
    Old English had oferbiden (Middle English overbiden, literally "over-bide") for "to outlive, outlast, live through," also...
    visit
    c. 1200, "come to (a person) to comfort or benefit," from Old French visiter "to visit; inspect, examine; afflict" (12c.) and directly from Latin visitare "to go to see, come to inspect," frequentative of visere "behold, visit" (a person or place), from past participle stem of vi
    marine
    mid-15c., "found in or pertaining to the sea," from Old French marin "of the sea, maritime," and directly from Latin marinus "of the sea," from mare "sea, the sea, seawater," from PIE root *mori- "body of water." The Old English word was sælic....late 14c., "seacoast;" see marine
    remain
    early 15c., remainen, "be left after the removal or loss of a part, number, or quality; survive," from Anglo-French remayn-, Old French remain- (as in il remaint "it remains"), stressed stem of remanoir "to stay, dwell, remain; be left; hold out," from Latin remanere "to remain,
    continue
    mid-14c., contynuen, "maintain, sustain, preserve;" late 14c., "go forward or onward; persevere in," from Old French continuer (13c.) and directly from Latin continuare "join together in uninterrupted succession, make or be continuous, do successively one after another," from con
    live
    Middle English liven, from Old English lifian (Anglian), libban (West Saxon) "to be, be alive, have life; continue in life; to experience," also "to supply oneself with food, procure a means of subsistence; pass life in a specified fashion," from Proto-Germanic *libejanan (source
    bay
    "inlet, recess in the shore of a sea or lake," c. 1400, from Old French baie, Late Latin baia (source of Spanish and Portuguese bahia, Italian baja), which is perhaps ultimately from Iberian (Celtic) bahia...."opening in a wall," especially a space between two columns, late 14c.
    counterfeit
    c. 1300, countrefeten, "pretend to be," from countrefet (adj.), Old French contrefait "imitated" (Modern French contrefait), past participle of contrefaire "imitate," from contre- "against" (see contra-) + faire "to make, to do" (from Latin facere "to make, do," from PIE root *dh
    reckon
    c. 1200, recenen, rekenen, "enumerate, count up; name one by one; relate, recount; make calculations," from Old English gerecenian "to explain, relate, recount; arrange in order," from Proto-Germanic *(ga)rakinaz "ready, straightforward" (source also of Old Frisian rekenia, Middl

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