different between beget vs begets

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.

English

Verb

begets

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of beget