be
Definitions
General English
- verb used for describing a person or thing
- verb used for showing age or time
- verb used for showing price
- verb used for showing someone’s job
- verb used for showing things such as size, weight, height, etc.
- verb to add up to
- verb used for showing that someone or something exists or is in a particular place
- noun the ninth letter of the alphabet, between H and J
- noun the Roman numeral for one or first
- pronoun used by a speaker when talking about himself or herself
Information & Library Science
- abbreviation in Internet addresses, the top-level domain for Belgium
English
- symbolI
Electronics
- chemical symbol forberyllium (written as Be)
- A hard and brittle gray-white metallic element whose atomic number is 4. It is highly resistant to oxidation at ordinary temperatures, has excellent thermal and electrical conductivities, has an extremely low density, is nonmagnetic, and is highly permeable to X-rays. There are about 10 known isotopes, of which one is stable. It has many applications, including its use as a moderator and reflector of neutrons in nuclear reactors, as a source of neutrons when bombarded with alpha particles, in aerospace and satellite outer structures, as a window material for X-ray tubes, and in precision electronic components and devices such as navigational instruments. Its chemical symbol is Be.
- A mathematical unit equal to the square root of -1. That is, t2 = -1. It is used in complex numbers. In electronics, the symbol utilized to express the square root of -1 is usually j.
- symbol for electric current, or current.
Construction
- In the critical path method (CPM) of scheduling, the symbol that represents the event at the start, or initiation, of an activity.
General Science
- noun a metallic element. It is used in making various alloys.
Origin
- Essentially all the Indo-European languages share the same first person singular pronoun, although naturally it has diverged in form over the millennia. French has je, e.g., Italian io, Russian ja, and Greek egṓ. The prehistoric Germanic pronoun was *eka, and this has produced German ich, Dutch ik, Swedish jag, Danish jeg, and English I. The affirmative answer aye ‘yes’ (16th c.) is probably ultimately the same word as I.
Origin & History of “be”
there are four distinct components that go to make up the modern English verb be. The infinitive form be comes ultimately from an Indo-European base *bheu-, *bhu-, which also produced, by other routes, future and physical. Its Germanic descendant was *bu-, which signified on the one hand ‘dwell’ (from which we get booth, bower, byre, build, burly, byelaw, and the final element of neighbour), and on the other hand ‘grow, become’, which led to its adoption as part of the verb expressing ‘being’ (in Old English particularly with the future sense of ‘coming to be’).
Am and is go back to the ancient Indo-European verb ‘be’, *es- or *s-, which has contributed massively to ‘be’ verbs throughout all Indo-European languages (third person present singulars Greek esti, Latin est, French est, German ist, Sanskrit ásti, Welsh ys, e.g.). The Indo-European first and third person singular forms were, respectively, ésmi and ésti.
For the present plural Old English used the related sind(on) (as found in Latin sunt, French sont, and German sind), but this died out in the 12th century, to be replaced by are, which comes from a Germanic base *ar- of unknown origin. From the same source is the now archaic second person singular art.
The past tense forms was, were come ultimately from an Indo-European base *wes- which meant ‘dwell, remain’. Related words in other Indo-European languages include Sanskrit vásati ‘dwell, remain’ and Gothic wisan ‘remain, continue’.
Am and is go back to the ancient Indo-European verb ‘be’, *es- or *s-, which has contributed massively to ‘be’ verbs throughout all Indo-European languages (third person present singulars Greek esti, Latin est, French est, German ist, Sanskrit ásti, Welsh ys, e.g.). The Indo-European first and third person singular forms were, respectively, ésmi and ésti.
For the present plural Old English used the related sind(on) (as found in Latin sunt, French sont, and German sind), but this died out in the 12th century, to be replaced by are, which comes from a Germanic base *ar- of unknown origin. From the same source is the now archaic second person singular art.
The past tense forms was, were come ultimately from an Indo-European base *wes- which meant ‘dwell, remain’. Related words in other Indo-European languages include Sanskrit vásati ‘dwell, remain’ and Gothic wisan ‘remain, continue’.
