different between comprehend vs befang

English

Etymology

From Middle English comprehenden, from Latin comprehendere (“to grasp”), from the prefix com- + prehendere (“to seize”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /k?mp???h?nd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /k?mp???h?nd/
• Rhymes: -?nd

Verb

comprehend (third-person singular simple present comprehends, present participle comprehending, simple past and past participle comprehended)

1. (now rare) To include, comprise; to contain. [from 14th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.1:

     And lothly mouth, unmeete a mouth to bee, / That nought but gall and venim comprehended […].

   • 1776, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Penguin 2009, p. 9:

     In the second century of the Christian Æra, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind.

2. To understand or grasp fully and thoroughly. [from 14th c.]

Related terms

Translations

French

Verb

comprehend

1. third-person singular present indicative of comprehendre

English

Alternative forms

• befong

Etymology

From Middle English befon (past participle befangen), from Old English bef?n (“to surround, clasp, include, envelop, encase, clothe, comprehend, seize, attack (at law), lay hold of, catch, ensnare, contain, receive, conceive, explain”), equivalent to be- +? fang. Cognate with Dutch bevangen (“to seize”), Middle High German bev?hen (“to comprehend”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [b??fæ?]

Verb

befang (third-person singular simple present befangs, present participle befanging, simple past and past participle befanged)

1. (transitive, Britain dialectal, Yorkshire) To lay hold on; seize; grasp; catch; clutch.

   Come here an' I'll befang thee!

2. (intransitive, obsolete) To take hold on; begin or commence upon.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To encompass; enclose; contain; comprehend.

References

• Wright, Joseph (1898) The English Dialect Dictionary?^[1], volume 1, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 225
• Philological Society (Great Britain), A new English dictionary on historical principles, Befong.