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English

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English bes.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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bes

  1. (now chiefly dialectal) third-person singular simple present indicative of be
    • 1850, William Stevens Balch, Ireland, as I Saw it:
      She bes there these five yare, an' has sint hoome foor her broother an' sister, the mooney for their passage, an' they bes goone these thra yares.
    • 1916, The Windsor Magazine - Volume 44, page 353:
      "An' he bes free times as old as herself," he wailed, " an' ugly as a squid ! But he bes rich — rich as any marchant — an' for the bread an' the fixin's an' the gold she bes takin' 'im."
    • 2005, Brenda Dooling, The Diamond Cage, →ISBN, page 236:
      And she bes white. Now, I bes what they use to call a house nigra. I don't work in no fields. And you know, I likes my color. Sho' not real fair, and not real dark either. I bes just who I be.
  2. (dialectal, nonstandard) Present tense inflected form of be: am or are.
    • 1850, William Stevens Balch, Ireland, as I Saw it:
      She bes there these five yare, an' has sint hoome foor her broother an' sister, the mooney for their passage, an' they bes goone these thra yares.
    • 2005, Brenda Dooling, The Diamond Cage, →ISBN, page 236:
      And she bes white. Now, I bes what they use to call a house nigra. I don't work in no fields. And you know, I likes my color. Sho' not real fair, and not real dark either. I bes just who I be.
Usage notes
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Into the Early Modern English period, be was still sometimes inflected like regular verbs in the ordinary present indicative (i.e. "they be", in addition to "they are"), although "he bes" was uncommon (compare "he beeth").[1] Today, such inflected forms are limited to the alternate, dynamic / lexical conjugation of be described in its Usage notes.

Synonyms
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References

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  1. ^ Henry Sweet, A Primer of Historical English Grammar (1893), page 88: The use of be in the pres. indic. is still kept up in Early MnE: I be, thou beest, they be, etc.; the form he bes is, however, very rare.

Etymology 2

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Borrowed from Latin bes.

Noun

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

bes (plural besses)

  1. (historical, numismatics) A bronze coin of the Roman Republic, worth two thirds of an as.

Etymology 3

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Noun

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bes

  1. plural of be (Cyrillic letter)

Etymology 4

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Noun

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bes

  1. Alternative form of beth (Semitic letter)

Anagrams

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Aromanian

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Inherited from Latin vissiō. Compare Romanian băși.

Verb

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bes first-singular present indicative (past participle bishitã)

  1. to fart

Synonyms

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Balinese

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Romanization

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bes

  1. Romanization of ᬩᭂᬲ᭄

Catalan

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Noun

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bes

  1. plural of be (the letter B)

Etymology 2

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Inherited from Latin basium, from Proto-Indo-European *bu. Compare Occitan bais, Spanish beso, Italian bacio.

Noun

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bes m (plural besos)

  1. kiss
    Synonyms: petó, besada
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Etymology 3

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Inherited from Latin versus. Doublet of vers.

Noun

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bes m (plural bessos)

  1. (nautical) strip of cloth used as part of a sail or a flag

Further reading

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Chipewyan

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Noun

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bes

  1. knife

Cornish

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Proto-Brythonic *bɨd, from Proto-Celtic *bitus.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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bes m (plural besow)

  1. (Revived Late Cornish) world

Mutation

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Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle Dutch bes, from Old Dutch besi, from Proto-Germanic *basją. Compare English berry, Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰𐌱𐌰𐍃𐌹 (weinabasi, grape).

Noun

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bes f (plural bessen, diminutive besje n)

  1. berry
    Synonyms: bei, bees, bezie
Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • Papiamentu: bèshi (from the diminutive)
  • Jersey Dutch: bääśe (from the diminutive)

Etymology 2

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(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

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bes f (plural bessen, diminutive besje n)

  1. (music) B flat

Etymology 3

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Backformation from besje, from older bestje, from bestemoer or bestemoeder (grandma, old woman).

Alternative forms

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Noun

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bes f (plural bessen, diminutive besje n)

  1. (chiefly diminutive) an old woman
    • a. 1525, anonymous author, “Lied van de twee koningskinderen”, in Haerlems Oudt Liedt-boeck, 27th edition, published 1716:
      Met een quam daer een besje,
      Een oude fenynde bes,
      But then there came an old woman,
      An old mean hag,

Jamaican Creole

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Adjective

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bes

  1. superlative degree of gud: best

Kashubian

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Etymology

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Inherited from Proto-Slavic *bъzъ.

Etymology

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  • IPA(key): /ˈbɛs/
  • Rhymes: -ɛs
  • Syllabification: bes

Noun

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bes m inan

  1. elder (Sambucus)

Further reading

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  • Eùgeniusz Gòłąbk (2011) “bez”, in Słownik Polsko-Kaszubski / Słowôrz Pòlskò-Kaszëbsczi[1]
  • bes”, in Internetowi Słowôrz Kaszëbsczégò Jãzëka [Internet Dictionary of the Kashubian Language], Fundacja Kaszuby, 2022

Latin

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Etymology

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From a derivative of *duō (two) (compare bis) + as.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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bes m (genitive bessis); third declension

  1. two-thirds, or a two-thirds part of any unit
  2. a coin worth two-thirds of an as

Declension

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Third-declension noun (i-stem).

Case Singular Plural
Nominative bes bessēs
Genitive bessis bessium
Dative bessī bessibus
Accusative bessem bessēs
bessīs
Ablative besse bessibus
Vocative bes bessēs

References

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  • bes in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Malay

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Malay Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia ms

Etymology

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From English base.

Noun

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bes (Jawi spelling بيس, plural bes-bes, informal 1st possessive besku, 2nd possessive besmu, 3rd possessive besnya)

  1. (chemistry) base, any of a class of generally water-soluble compounds, having bitter taste, that turn red litmus blue, and react with acids to form salts.

Alternative forms

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Further reading

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Middle English

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Etymology

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A version of bith with the third-person singular ending replaced with -es as in other verbs (in some dialects) and the vowel of the infinitive been leveled in.

Verb

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bes

  1. Alternative form of bith

Norwegian Bokmål

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Verb

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bes

  1. passive form of be

Old Irish

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Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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bes

  1. third-person singular present subjunctive relative of is

Mutation

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Old Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Nasalization
bes bes
pronounced with /β(ʲ)-/
mbes
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Papiamentu

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Etymology

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From Portuguese vez and Spanish vez and Kabuverdianu vés.

Noun

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bes

  1. times as in "three times is too much"
  2. occasion, instance

Serbo-Croatian

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Inherited from Proto-Slavic *běsъ (evil spirit).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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bȇs m (Cyrillic spelling бе̑с)

  1. rage
  2. fury
  3. madness
  4. mania
  5. tantrum
  6. wildness
  7. ferocity
  8. rampage

Declension

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Spanish

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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bes m (plural beses)

  1. bes (two-thirds of an as (Roman measurement), around 219.3 grams)

Noun

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bes f pl

  1. plural of be

Further reading

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Swedish

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Verb

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bes

  1. passive infinitive of be
  2. present passive of be

Tagalog

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Clipping from English best friend.

Noun

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bes (Baybayin spelling ᜊᜒᜐ᜔) (colloquial, women's speech, gay slang)

  1. endearing term of address for one's friend, especially a close friend or bestfriend: friend; best friend
Usage notes
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See also
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Etymology 2

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Borrowed from Spanish vez, from Latin vicis (change, alternation). Doublet of beses.

Noun

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bes (Baybayin spelling ᜊᜒᜐ᜔) (Cavite)

  1. time; instance; repetition
    Synonyms: ulit, beses

Further reading

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  • bes”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018

Western Yugur

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Western Yugur cardinal numbers
 <  4 5 6  > 
    Cardinal : bes

Numeral

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bes

  1. five