bewrite

English

Etymology

From Middle English bewriten, from Old English bewrītan (“to write, record, copy”), from Proto-West Germanic *biwrītan (“to write down; write about”), equivalent to be- (“about, over”) +‎ write. Cognate with Old Frisian biwrīta (“to write down”), Middle Low German bewriten (“to engrave; to pronounce a blessing”), German bereiẞen (“to scale something by hand, carry out manually”). Compare also Dutch beschrijven (“to describe”), German beschreiben (“to describe”), Swedish beskriva (“to describe”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aɪt

Verb

bewrite (third-person singular simple present bewrites, present participle bewriting, simple past bewrote, past participle bewritten)

1. (transitive) To write about; describe.
   • 1838, The Yale literary magazine, volume 3:

     I vow and purpose, here in the presence of " Billy Shakspeare," to bewrite this ill-starred foolscap!!

   • 1878, Philip Dwyer, The Diocese of Killaloe from the Reformation to the close of the Eighteenth century:

     I humbly beg of you, for God's sake and your own, to read what I here presume to bewrite: [...]

   • 1926, Blanche Colton Williams, Best American stories:

     "I said it was a pleasureful thing to be thus bewritten upward. [...]"

   • 2011, The history of the Chronoswiss brand can only reach:

     This harvesting bewrites the unhealable Monogrammed Beach Towels of affair and assenting a brew-house.

2. (transitive) To write to.
   • 1905, Charles Hallam Elton Brookfield, Frances Mary Brookfield, Mrs. Brookfield and her circle: Volume 1:

     After I bewrote thee yesterday Mrs. Neville drove Lady Charlotte, young Bagot (Clerk) and self into Glastonbury.

3. (transitive) To write; write from; copy.
   • 1850, Donald Grant Mitchell, The battle summer::

     And it was in just one of these accessions of strength, (which after all, I count only as seductive illusions,) that I found myself with pen and paper, bewriting page after page — sketching men and scenes that I thought you would be glad to see, [...]

Derived terms

• bewriting
• bewritten