Old English · verb
bewerian
- Part of speech
- verb
- Verb class
- weak class 1
- IPA
- /beˈwer.jɑn/[beˈwerˠ.jɑn]
- Syllables
- be · ˈwer · jɑn (3 syllables)
- Modern English
- defend
Meaning
-
to defend
Swā fela þūsenda engla meahton ēaðe bewerian Crist wiþ þām unmannum, mid heofonlīcum wǣpnum, ġif hē þrōwian nolde selfwilles for ūs.
That many thousands of angels could have easily defended Christ against those brutes [the men who came to arrest Jesus], with weapons from heaven, if he didn't want to suffer voluntarily for us.
c. 992, Ælfric, "Palm Sunday: On the Lord's Passion"
Conjugation
| Present | Past | |
|---|---|---|
| Indicative | ||
| 1st singular | bewerie | bewerede |
| 2nd singular | bewerest | beweredest |
| 3rd singular | bewereþ | bewerede |
| Plural | beweriaþ | beweredon |
| Subjunctive | ||
| Singular | bewerie | bewerede |
| Plural | bewerien | bewereden |
| Form | |
|---|---|
| Infinitive | bewerian |
| Inflected infinitive | bewerienne |
| Imperative singular | bewere |
| Imperative plural | beweriaþ |
| Present participle | beweriende |
| Past participle | bewered |
All forms (14)
Etymology
From Proto-West Germanic *biwarjan. Cognate with Old High German biwerien. Equivalent to be- + werian.
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bewerian · CC BY-SA 4.0 licence · Attribution