Etymology: A word of difficult history. In the sense of ‘stiff-grass’ or ‘grass-stalk’ (in which alone the variant bennet occurs), it appears to be the representative of Old English beonet-, found as a frequent element in proper names, as Beonet-léah Bentley (see Index to Cod. Dipl. ævi Saxon.). These names do not show the meaning; but beonet < earlier *binut (with eo as u- umlaut of i), in Old Saxon binet (Schade), is phonetically identical with Old High German binuȥ, Middle High German bineȥ, binȥ (strong masculine), modern German binse ‘rush, reed, stout grass growing in wet places’ < West Germanic *binut, of unknown etymology. But distinct instances of this sense are not found before the 15th cent., while the sense of ‘grassy field or surface’ is common in northern writers from the earliest appearance of northern literature. Whether this is the same word is uncertain: it is possible enough that the plural bents was used for a place where ‘bents’ grew (compare local names like Totley Bents near Sheffield) and that this led to the use of the singular bent as ‘open grassy place.’ They are here united provisionally.

Etymology: < bend v.; probably on analogy of words from Latin or French: compare descend, descent, extend, extent; French pendre, pente, rendre, rente. There appears to be no sufficient analogy for its formation from the past participle.Bent of a hill occurs too early to belong to this word, but it was perhaps afterwards confused with it. See bent n.¹ 6.

Etymology: < bend v.