“Besiege” uses the first meaning of “be-“, to surround physically. Surround the enemy, block the flow of food in to them, and wait for surrender.
“besiege, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 7 May 2015.
“Benight” uses be- in its capacity as a Maker of Verbs with the sense of surround.
The derivative adjective “benighted”carries the metaphorical connotation of having been morally corrupted. Tolkien uses it here, however, in its old meaning. Goblins caught travellers who had become surrounded by night. The OED tells us that this meaning is obsolete, although we find it perfectly understandable.
“benighted, adj.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 7 May 2015.
Our present sense of “see” for behold has lost a bit of beauty. “Behold” uses the “be-” meaning of “around”, and in its early years “behold” was definitely all about holding something around its middle or throat or other hold-able part. From holding on or retaining something, the meaning moved to holding an idea firmly in one’s mind and considering it. From thence to “observe” in the mind or with the eyes, and now our usual use.
“behold, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 7 May 2015.
This is just good old-fashioned orthography. “Be gone!” Imperative “be” followed by verbal adjective “gone”, used together so many times that the space between them retired. We do not have “bego, bewent”, but neither do we have “isgone, wasgone”. I am reminded of Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Act IV, Scene 1 – “I am gone, though I am here.”
“begone, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 7 May 2015.
Shall we begin a petition to change the social media act of “friending” to the perfectly good old word “befriend”? In this case, the “be-” makes the verb from the noun. “Friend” is a noun.
P. S. If you really want to bebother me, invite me to “vision” with yourself and your committee.
“befriend, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 7 May 2015.
To make foul or dirty, this instance of “be-” forms the verb out of the adjective “foul”. In the 13 and 1400s, this word slowly replaced “befile”, an interesting formation of be-defile.
I note that the filth that one is covered with when befouled often refers to metaphorical moral filth. All in this passage has been befouled by Smaug’s coming and goings – and also his malice? More on the malice of dragons in Legard.
“befoul, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 7 May 2015.
Legard, Sara. “Essential Dragons Beyond Tolkien’s Middle Earth”. Mythmoot II Proceedings. Mythgard Institute. Web.
This use of “be-” intensifies the verb; I am pleased to note that in this use, “befall” takes an indirect object, that least visible of Modern English cases. This use of befall is not archaic although others (which have more to do with inheritances or actual objects on one’s head) are listed as obsolete!
Fate doesn’t just fall on someone, but crashes all down around; here the dwarves wonder about Thorin when he is separated from them In Mirkwood.
“befall, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 7 May 2015.
Our Mr. Baggins, dignified even in his indignance, uses one of the most magnificent words of the book right up front in Chapter 1.
“Bother” we all understand as “annoy” in our present use of English. It also has an obscure meaning.
To bewilder with noise; to confuse, muddle; to put into a fluster or flutter.
The dwarves have definitely annoyed Bilbo, in exactly this obscure specific way, with which I am certain Tolkien was familiar. To this word he has added be-. “May the dwarves become bothered. May bothering surround them.” “Bebother” as a verb has no entry in the OED, but the adjective “bebothered” is attested there for the mid-1800s. Tolkien invented this word – back-forming it from “bebothered” – deducing a word that must have existed but for which no evidence is found. Creative deduction like this of what are often called “asterisk words” is the chief tool of the philologist
As a Chapter 1 word, “bebother” goes far to setting tone and illustrating some of Bilbo’s character. I imagine him stamping his hairy foot, eyes squinted and head shaking. At about four feet tall and moving toward being “on his dignity”, he seems to be in a dudgeon which cannot really be … high. I am listing “bebother” as a funny word both for the image and for sound of it, a little startle of humour when we hear something as unexpected as Wednesday afternoon parties.
“bother, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 7 May 2015.
The unaccented “be-” prefix comes through our Old English heritage and stands for “about” with many prepositions generalizing to “at or near” (before, behind, below) and with be- verbs carrying many different meanings of “about” (begird uses the “around” meaning and “bespatter” uses “all-over”). The OED‘s entry on the be-prefix is absolutely inspiring and I recommend it to anyone who loves the words so much that they are reading a concordance blog. Among other things,
the force of be- passes over to an object, … Hence it is used to form transitive vbs. on adjectives and substantives
Görlach teaches us that in the 1500s one could add or subtract “be-” as an intensifier or causative just about anywhere one wished. The OED says further that be- remains “a living element” and may be added even now when appropriate to meaning. If a living element, then do I count the archaism or obsolescence of the stem? or of the be-be’d word? I was once tempted to lemmatize be- words to the form without the prefix. In doing so, we would lose such beauties as “begone” and “benighted”. Since we are keeping these, I’ll use the OED‘s classification for the full word, if there is one. Again, I learn how much of the artist’s touch is required in this work.
Behold, we begin here today.
“be-, prefix.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 7 May 2015.
Görlach, Manfred. Introduction to Early Modern English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Print.
“Zig-zag” is first attested in English as a garden path layout in 1712. Its earliest appearance is in German (zickzack), indicating a proper path toward a siege so that the defenders don’t have a clear shot at the besiegers. In The Hobbit, the term describes the path into well-hidden and well-fortified Rivendell.
OED reports that it can be two words, one word, or hyphenated.
“zigzag, n., adj., and adv.”. OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 9 May 2015.
words that you were saying 