different between believe vs beget

English

Alternative forms

• beleeve (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English beleven, bileven, from Old English bel?efan (“to believe”), a later variant to Proto-Germanic *galaubijan? (“to have faith, believe”). Cognate with Scots beleve (“to believe”). Compare Old English ?el?efan (“to be dear to; believe, trust”), Old English ?el?afa (“belief, faith, confidence, trust”), Old English l?of ("dear, valued, beloved, pleasant, agreeable"; > English lief). Related also to North Frisian leauwjen (“to believe”), West Frisian leauwe (“to believe”), Dutch geloven (“to believe”), German glauben (“to believe”), Gothic ???????????????????????????????????? (galaubjan, “to hold dear, valuable, or satisfactory, approve of, believe”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /b??li?v/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /b??liv/, /bi-/, /b?-/
• Rhymes: -i?v
• Hyphenation: be?lieve

Verb

believe (third-person singular simple present believes, present participle believing, simple past and past participle believed)

1. (transitive) To accept as true, particularly without absolute certainty (i.e., as opposed to knowing)
2. (transitive) To accept that someone is telling the truth.

3. (intransitive) To have religious faith; to believe in a greater truth.
4. (transitive) To opine, think, reckon

   Do you think this is good?

   Hmm, I believe it's okay.

Antonyms

• disbelieve

Usage notes

• The transitive verb believe and the phrasal verb believe in are similar but can have very different implications.
  • To “believe” someone or something means to accept specific pieces of information as truth: believe the news, believe the lead witness. To “believe a complete stranger” means to accept a stranger's story with little evidence.
  • To “believe in” someone or something means to hold confidence and trust in that person or concept: believe in liberty, believe in God. To “believe in one's fellow man” means to place trust and confidence in mankind.
• Meanings sometimes overlap. To believe in a religious text would also require affirming the truth of at least the major tenets. To believe a religious text might likewise imply placing one's confidence and trust in it, in addition to accepting its statements as facts.
• This is generally a stative verb that rarely takes the continuous inflection. See Category:English stative verbs

Derived terms

Related terms

• belief
• disbelief

Translations

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

believe

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of believen

Anagrams

• beviele

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.