† bedeneadv.

Etymology: Middle English bidene , a word of constant occurrence in northern Middle English verse, but of uncertain origin; its senses run partly parallel with those of anon adv., but it is often used without any appreciable force, as a rhyme word, or to fill up the measure. Its latter part is almost certainly the early Middle English adverb æne , ene , Old English ǽne ‘once, at once, in one, together’ (compare the Middle English phrases at ene at once, for ene for once, and see ene adj.): but the bid- is difficult of explanation. Marsh and Mätzner compared Dutch bijdien, Middle Dutch bidên, bidien, Low German bidên ‘by that, thereby, beside that,’ which must be discarded; Stratmann compared Low German binêne (? for bî êne), and suggested that bidene might be for bi ene, but offered no explanation of the -d-. Prof. Zupitza (note to Guy of Warwick, 15th cent. version, l. 2408) suggests a corruption of *mid ene, comparing Middle High German mitein, mit eine, ‘together, unà.’ This completely suits the sense; also, the change of initial m to b, though unusual, is not unexampled; compare especially Middle High German bitalle for mit alle ‘wholly, entirely.’ But there are historical difficulties in the non-appearance of *mid ǽne in Old English, or of mid éne, bidene, in early southern Middle English, where alone mid was retained; in the rise and use of bidene in the north, where mid was not retained in Middle English; and in the fact that the Old Northumbrian had not mid, but mið, so that the Anglian form would have been mið éne. These difficulties are only partially removed, if, for mid, we start from the more northern with. In the Old Usages of Winchester ( E.E. Guilds), we see wiþ-inne, wiþ-owte, transformed into by-þinne, by-þowte, through assimilation to by; similarly *wið ene, *wiþ ene, might be changed into *bi-ðene, *by-þene; but the change of the latter into bi-dene, would still remain to be explained.