English

by

/baɪ/
Near or next to.

    Etymology graph

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    Origin

    From Middle English by, bi, from Old English bī (“by; near; around”), from Proto-West Germanic *bī, from Proto-Germanic *bi (“near; by; around; about”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi.

    Cognate with West Frisian by (“by; near”), Afrikaans by (“at; by; near”), Saterland Frisian bie (“near; by”), Dutch bij (“near; by”), German Low German bi (“by; near; at”), German bei (“by; near; at”).

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishby “town”
      • inheritedOld Englishbī “being near”
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*bī
        • inheritedOld Englishbēo “to become, will be; to be”
      • derivedOld Norsebýr “town, settlement”
        • derivedOld EnglishRocheberie
        • derivedProto-Germanic*būwiz “dwelling”

    Related: West Frisian by, Afrikaans by, Saterland Frisian bie, Dutch bij, German Low German bi, German bei

    Words built on it: by and by, by right, put by, by no means, play-by-play

    Sources