An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language Part 62

_To_ BELT, _v. a._ To flog, to scourge, S.

_To_ BELT, _v. n._ To come forward with a sudden spring, S.

Isl. _bilt-a_, _bilt-ast_, signifies, to tumble headlong.

BELT, _part. pa._ Built.

_Douglas._

BELTANE, BELTEIN, _s._ The name of a sort of festival observed on the first day of May, O. S.; hence used to denote the term of Whitsunday.

_Peblis to the Play._

This festival is chiefly celebrated by the cow-herds, who a.s.semble by scores in the fields, to dress a dinner for themselves, of boiled milk and eggs. These dishes they eat with a sort of cakes baked for the occasion, and having small lumps in the form of _nipples_, raised all over the surface. The cake seems to have been an offering to some Deity in the days of Druidism.--In Ireland, Beltein is celebrated on the 21st June, at the time of the solstice. There, as they make fires on the tops of hills, every member of the family is made to pa.s.s through the fire; as they reckon this ceremony necessary to ensure good fortune through the succeeding year.--The Gael. and Ir. word _Beal-tine_ or _Beil-tine_ signifies _Bel's Fire_; as composed of _Baal_ or _Belis_, one of the names of the sun in Gaul, and _tein_ signifying fire. Even in Angus a spark of fire is called a _tein_ or _teind_.

BELTH, _s._

_Douglas._

This word may denote a whirlpool or rus.h.i.+ng of waters. I am inclined, however, to view it, either as equivalent to _belch_, only with a change in the termination, _metri causa_; or as signifying, figure, image, from A. S. _bilith_, Alem. _bilid_, _bileth_, id.

_To_ BEMANG, _v. a._ To hurl, to injure; to overpower, S. B.

_Minstrelsy Border._

_To_ BEME, _v. n._

1. To resound, to make a noise.

_Douglas._

2. To call forth by sound of trumpet.

_Gawan and Gol._

Germ. _bomm-en_, resonare; or A. S. _beam_, _bema_, tuba. It is evident that beme is radically the same with _bommen_, because Germ.

_bomme_, as well as A. S. _beam_, signifies a trumpet.

BEME, _s._ A trumpet; ~Bemys~, pl.

_Gawan and Gol._

O. E. _beem_, id.

V. the _v._

BEMYNG, _s._ b.u.mming, buzzing.

_Douglas._

BEN, _adv._

1. Towards the inner apartment of a house; corresponding to ~But~, S.

_Wyntown._

It is also used as a preposition, _Gae ben the house_, Go into the inner apartment.

A ~But~ _and a_ ~Ben~, S.; i. e. a house containing two rooms.

_Statist. Acc._

2. It is used metaph. to denote intimacy, favour, or honour. Thus it is said of one, who is admitted to great familiarity with another, who either is, or wishes to be thought his superior; _He is far ben_. "_O'er far ben_, too intimate or familiar," Gl. s.h.i.+rr.

_Lyndsay._

Leg. as in edit. 1670, _far ben_.

A. S. _binnan_, Belg. _binnen_, intus, (within); _binnen-kamer_, locus secretior in penetralibus domus; Kilian. Belg. _binnen gaan_, to go within, S. _to gae ben_; _binnen brengen_, to carry within, S. _to bring ben_.

BEN-END, _s._

1. _The ben-end of a house_, the inner part of it, S.

2. Metaph., the best part of any thing; as, _the ben-end of one's dinner_, the princ.i.p.al part of it, S. B.

BEN-HOUSE, _s._ The inner or princ.i.p.al apartment, S.

BENNER, _adj._ A comparative formed from _ben_. Inner, S. B.

_Poems Buchan Dial._

BENMOST is used as a superlative, signifying innermost.

_Ferguson._