Have you ever considered the prefix be- in words such as begrudge, bespectacled, and bejeweled? What exactly does it mean? A lot of things, as it turns out. This Old English prefix is not related to the verb “be,” but it is related to the preposition “by,” and it is quite the lexical workhorse. Its… Continue reading The Origin of Be- as a Prefix: Beknowing a Befuddling Feature of English
Useless Etymology 