English
ben
Ben comes from Middle English ben, a variant of binne ‘within’, from Old English binnan ‘within’, from bi- + innan ‘within’.
- Old Englishc. 450–1150innan‘within’
- Old English, derivedc. 450–1150binnan‘within’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500binne‘within’
- Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500ben
- Englishearliest quotation 1972ben
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Old Englishc. 450–1150innan‘within’
- Old English, derivedc. 450–1150binnan‘within’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500binne‘within’
- Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500ben
- Englishearliest quotation 1972ben
Earliest quotation: 1972, George Mackay Brown, Greenvoe: “Bert Kerston was awakened by a steady tap on…”
Every English word from Old English innan
Another origin of ben
- Arabicc. 500–presentبَنَانbanān‘finger’uncertain
- Arabic, derivedc. 500–presentبَانbān‘ben tree’uncertain
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500been
- Englishtodayben
From Middle English been, from Old French and Medieval Latin, probably from a North African pronunciation of Arabic بَان (bān, “ben tree”).
Another origin of ben
- Arabicc. 500–presentبِنbin
- Englishtodayben
Another origin of ben
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bn̥dʰéh₂reconstructed
- Proto-Celticc. 1300–800 BCE*bandā‘peak, top’reconstructed
- Old Irishc. 600–900benn‘peak, point, pinnacle’
- Scottish Gaelicmodernbeinn‘pinnacle’
- Scotsc. 1450–presentben
- Englishtodayben
Today it means
prep In, into.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old English innan / ben