biliþ

Etymology

This is a ghost word resulting from a misinterpretation of the spelling biliðe in the Old English Daniel poem as it appears in the Junius Manuscript, folio 187; the ultimate origin of which appears to be Edward Lye's Dictionarium Saxonico et Gothico-Latinum. However, the spelling is most likely actually a corruption of blīþe (“happy”), as part of the phrase "Blīþe wǣron eorlas Ebrēa" ("Happy were the Hebrew men"). The extra vowel may have been from association with bilewit, although there are no other such examples for this root. Despite its prevalence in the continental West Germanic language…

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