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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

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English

beat

/biːt/
A stroke; a blow.

    Etymology graph

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    • borrowed
    • derived
    • parts
    • meaning component
    • sound component
    • related
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    Origin

    Etymology 1

    Inherited from Middle English beten, from Old English bēatan (“to beat, pound, strike, lash, dash, thrust, hurt, injure”), from Proto-West Germanic *bautan, from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to push, strike”).

    Cognates

    Cognate with Dutch boten, botten, butten (“to push, strike”), German boßen (“to thrash”), Gothic *𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍄𐌰𐌽 (*bautan, “to beat, strike”) (whence, probably, Galician and Portuguese botar (“to expel; to throw”)); also Latin fūstis (“club, cudgel, knobbed stick, staff”), *fūtō (“to strike”), Albanian bahe, hobe (“sling”), Armenian բութ (butʻ), բույթ (buytʻ, “thumb”).

    Etymology 2

    From Middle English bet (simple past of beten "to beat"), from Old English bēot (simple past of bēatan "to beat"). Middle English bet would regularly yield *beet; the modern form is influenced by the present stem and the past participle beaten, perhaps by analogy with the Early Modern English paradigm eat:eat (“ate”):eaten. Pronunciations with /ɛ/ (from Middle English bette, alternative simple past of beten) are possibly analogous to read (/ɹɛd/), led, met, etc.

    Etymology 3

    From beatnik, or beat generation.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishbeten
      • inheritedOld Englishbēatan “to beat”
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*bautan “to beat”
          • inheritedProto-Germanic*bautaną “to beat, push”
            • derivedProto-Indo-European*bʰew- “to grow, wax, swell”
    • derivedEnglishbeatific “Blessed, blissful, heavenly.”
      • borrowedLatinbeātificus “making happy or blessed”
    • inheritedMiddle Englishbet “something better, advantage, luck”
      • inheritedOld Englishbēot
        • derivedMiddle Englishbette
    • derivedEnglishbeatnik “A person who dresses in a manner that is not socially acceptable and is supposed to reject conventi…”
      • suffixEnglish-nik “Used to form nouns denoting a person who exemplifies, endorses, or is associated with a specified t…”
    • derivedEnglishbeat generation

    Related: Dutch boten, German boßen, Gothic *𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍄𐌰𐌽, gl,pt botar, Latin fūstis, Albanian bahe, Armenian բութ

    Meanings

    noun
    1. A stroke; a blow.
    2. A pulsation or throb.
    3. A pulse on the beat level, the metric level at which pulses are heard as the basic unit. Thus a beat is the basic time unit of a piece.
    4. A rhythm.
    5. The rhythm signalled by a conductor or other musician to the members of a group of musicians.
    6. The instrumental portion of a piece of hip-hop music.
    verb
    1. To hit; to strike.
    2. To strike or pound repeatedly, usually in some sort of rhythm.
    3. To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.
    4. To move with pulsation or throbbing.
    5. To win against; to defeat or overcome; to do or be better than (someone); to excel in a particular, competitive event.
    6. To sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind.
    adj
    1. Exhausted.
    2. Dilapidated, beat up.
    3. Having impressively attractive makeup.
    4. Boring.
    5. Ugly.

    Sources

    • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
    • Wiktionary: beat