An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language Part 69

BEW, _adj._ Good, honourable. _Bew schyris_, or _schirris_, good Sirs.

Fr. _beau_, good.

_Douglas._

_To_ BEWAVE, BEWAUE, _v. a._ To cause to wander or waver.

_Palice of Honour._

A. S. _waf-ian_, vacillare, fluctuare.

BEWIS, BEWYS, _s. pl._ Boughs.

V. ~Beuch~.

_Douglas._

BEWIS, _s. pl._ Beauties.

O. Fr. _beau_, beauty.

_Maitland Poems._

BEWITH, _s._ A thing which is employed as a subst.i.tute for another, although it should not answer the end so well.

_Ramsay._

One who arrives, when the regular dinner is eaten, is said to get "only a _bewith_ for a dinner," S.

From the subst. v. conjoined with the prep., q. what one must submit to for a time.

_To_ BEWRY, _v. a._ To pervert, to distort.

_Douglas._

Teut. _wroegh-en_, torquere, angere.

BY, _prep._

1. Beyond, S.

_Pitscottie._

2. Besides, over and above.

_Pitscottie._

3. Away from, without, without regard to, contrary to.

_Wallace._

_By_, as thus used, is sometimes directly contrasted with _be_, as signifying _by_ in the modern sense of the term. This may be viewed as an oblique sense of _by_ as signifying _beyond_; perhaps in allusion to an arrow that flies wide from the mark.

4. In a way of distinction from, S.

_Wallace._

BY, _adv._ When, after; q. by the time that.

_Pitscottie._

This idiom is very ancient, Moes. G. _Bi the galithun thai brothrjus is_; _When_ his brethren were gone up.

BY-HAND, _adv._ Over, S.

V. ~Hand~.

BY-LYAR, _s._ A neutral.

_Knox._

From the _v_. _To lie by_, E.

BIAS, a word used as a mark of the superlative degree; _bias bonny_, very handsome; _bias hungry_, very hungry, Aberd.

BIB, _s._ A term used to denote the stomach, Ang., borrowed, perhaps, from the use of that small piece of linen, thus denominated, which covers the breast or stomach of a child.

BYBILL, _s._ A large writing, a scroll so extensive that it may be compared to a book.

_Detection Q. Mary._

The word occurs in a similar sense in O. E. As used by Chaucer, Tyrwhitt justly renders it "any great book." In the dark ages, when books were scarce, those, which would be most frequently mentioned, would doubtless be the _Bible_ and _Breviary_. Or, this use of the word may be immediately from L. B. _biblus_, a book, (Gr. ????), which occurs in this sense from the reign of Charlemagne downwards.

b.i.+.c.hMAN, _s._ Perhaps, for _buthman_, q. _boothman_, one who sells goods in a _booth_.