different between begem vs beget

English

Etymology

be- +? gem

Verb

begem (third-person singular simple present begems, present participle begemming, simple past and past participle begemmed)

1. To adorn (as if) with gems.
   • 1748, Laetitia Pilkington, “Queen Mab to Pollio” in Memoirs, Dublin, p. 151,^[1]

     Our Grove we illuminate, glorious to see,

     With glittering Glow-worms begemming each Tree;

   • 1821, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Adonaïs, stanza 11,^[2]

     One […] threw

     The wreath upon him, like an anadem,

     Which frozen tears instead of pearls begem;

   • 1929, C. K. Scott Moncrieff (translator), The Captive by Marcel Proust, New York: Modern Library, Part I, Chapter 1, p. 3,^[3]

     Time was, when a stage manager would spend hundreds of thousands of francs to begem with real emeralds the throne upon which a great actress would play the part of an empress.

English

Etymology

From Middle English begeten, bi?eten, from Old English be?ietan (“to get, find, acquire, attain, receive, take, seize, happen, beget”), [influenced by Old Norse geta ("to get, to guess")] from Proto-Germanic *bigetan? (“to find, seize”), equivalent to be- +? get. Cognate with Old Saxon bigetan (“to find, seize”), Old High German bigezan (“to gain, achieve, win, procure”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /bi???t/, /b????t/, /b????t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Verb

beget (third-person singular simple present begets, present participle begetting, simple past begot or (archaic) begat, past participle begotten or (rare) begot) (transitive)

1. To father; to sire; to produce (a child).
   • 2003, William H. Frist, Shirley Wilson, Good People Beget Good People: A Genealogy of the Frist Family, Rowman & Littlefield (?ISBN), page 110:

     I believe good people beget good people. If you marry the right person, then you will have good children. But everywhere else in life, too, good people beget good people. In your work, when you hire good people, they, in turn, will hire good ...

2. To cause; to produce.
3. To bring forth.
   • 1614, Ben Jonson, Bartholmew Fayre, Induction:

     If there bee neuer a Seruant-mon?ter i' the Fayre, who can helpe it, he ?ayes ; nor a ne?t of Antiques ? ? Hee is loth to make Nature afraid in his Playes, like tho?e that beget Tales, Tempe?ts, and ?uch like Drolleries, […]
4. (Britain dialectal) To happen to; befall.

Derived terms

• begetter
• begetting
• begotten

Related terms

• begettal, ill-begotten, misbegotten, unbegot, unbegotten, forebegotten

Translations

See also

• sire

References

• beget in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• beget in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.