An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language Part 55

BEFORN, _prep._ Before.

_Wallace._

It occurs also in O. E.

_R. Brunne._

A. S. _beforan_, ante; coram.

BEFOROUTH, _adv._ Before, formerly.

V. ~Forowth~.

_Barbour._

BEFT, _part. pa._ Beaten.

V. ~Beff~.

_To_ BEGARIE, _v. a._

1. To variegate, to deck with various colours.

_Lyndsay._

2. To stripe, to variegate with lines of various colours, to streak.

_Begaryit_, striped, _part. pa._

_Douglas._

3. To besmear; to bedaub, to bespatter. "S. _begaried_, bedirted;" Rudd.

vo. ~Laggerit~.

_Lyndsay._

This _v._ has an evident affinity to our _Gair_, _gare_, a stripe of cloth, and _Gaired_, _gairy_, q. v. The word is immediately allied to Fr. _begarr-er_, to diversify; _begarre_, of sundry colours, mingled.

BEGAIRIES, _s. pl._ Stripes or slips of cloth sewed on garments, by way of ornament, such as are now worn in liveries; _pessments_, S. synon.

_Acts Ja. VI._

BEGANE, _part. pa._ Covered; _Gold begane_, overlaid with gold.

_Douglas._

_Aurea tecta_, Virg. According to Rudd. q. _gone over_. Chaucer uses the phrase, _With gold begon_, Rom. Rose, 943., "painted over with gold," Tyrwh.

_To_ BEGECK, BEGAIK, BEGEIK, _v. a._ To deceive; particularly by playing the jilt, S.B.

_Dunbar._

Teut. _gheck-en_, deridere, ludibrio habere.

V. ~Geck~.

BEGEIK, BEGINK, BEGUNK, _s._

1. A trick, or illusion, which exposes one to ridicule, S.

_Ramsay._

2. It often denotes the act of jilting one in love; applied either to a male, or to a female, S.

~Begeik~ is the more common term, S. B.

_Morison._

BEGES, BEGESS, _adv._ By chance, at random.

_Evergreen._

From _be_, by, and _gess_, guess, Belg. _ghisse_.

BEGGER-BOLTS, _s. pl._ "A sort of darts or missile weapons. The word is used by James VI. in his Battle of Lepanto, to denote the weapons of the _forceats_, or galley-slaves." Gl. Sibb. Hudson writes _beggers' bolts_.

The word may have originated from contempt of the persons, who used these arms, q. _bolts_ of _beggars_.

BEGOUTH, BEGOUDE, _pret._ Began.

_Wyntown._

_Begoud_ is now commonly used, S.

A. S. _gynn-an_, _beginn-an_, seem to have had their pret. formed like _eode_, from _gan_, ire: _Beginnan_, _begeode_.

BEGRAUIN, _part. pa._ Buried, interred.

_Douglas._