Etymograph

English

bid

Bid comes from Middle English bidden ‘to ask, beseech’, from Old English biddan ‘to ask, demand’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰedʰ- ‘to request, pray’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷʰedʰ-‘to request’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷʰédʰyetiuncertain
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*bidjaną‘to ask’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*biddjan‘to ask’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150biddan‘to ask’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bidden‘to ask, beseech’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1590bid

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷʰedʰ-‘to request’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷʰédʰyetiuncertain
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*bidjaną‘to ask’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*biddjan‘to ask’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150biddan‘to ask’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bidden‘to ask, beseech’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1590bid

Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book I, Canto X: “All night she spent in bidding of her bedes,…”

The story

Conflated with Old English bēodan (‘to offer, announce’) (see Etymology 2 below).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰedʰ- ‘to request, pray, ask for’

bead, bede

through Old English biddan ‘to ask, demand’

bad

Another origin of bid

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰewdʰ-‘be awake, aware’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*beudaną‘to offer’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150bēodan‘to offer, announce’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500beden‘to offer, present’
  5. Englishtodaybid

Conflated with Old English biddan (‘to ask, demand’) (see Etymology 1 above).

Today it means

verb To issue a command; to tell.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰedʰ- / bid

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