BEGAT
What does "BEGAT" mean?
An archaic past tense of 'beget' - to have fathered a child.
Meanings
- Archaic past tense of 'beget': to have brought a child into being, especially as the father. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob. archaic
- Past tense of 'beget' in the figurative sense: to have given rise to or caused something. One careless lie begat a dozen more. archaic
Did you know?
- The word survives mostly thanks to one book: the 1611 King James Bible chains dozens of 'begat's through its genealogies, so the form outlived its ordinary use by riding on scripture.
Word origin
An older past tense of 'beget', from Old English 'begietan' (to acquire, to procreate); the King James Bible of 1611 made 'begat' famous through its long genealogies.
Remember it
BEGAT = beget's past, parallel to began/begat - the vowel drops to A for what's already done.
A little poem
A name, a son, a name, a son again -
the long roll counts the dead like fence posts down a hill.
Each begat a gate that someone walked on through.
tercet
Wordplay
- Why is 'begat' the most patient word in the Bible? It waits a whole verse, fathers one line, then does it all over again.
What it teaches
Every name in a long list was once a whole life; lineage is just the shorthand we keep when the stories are lost.
Quick facts
What does BEGAT mean?
An archaic past tense of 'beget' - to have fathered a child.
Is BEGAT a valid word?
Yes — BEGAT is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is BEGAT?
BEGAT has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does BEGAT come from?
An older past tense of 'beget', from Old English 'begietan' (to acquire, to procreate); the King James Bible of 1611 made 'begat' famous through its long genealogies.
What can BEGAT teach us?
Every name in a long list was once a whole life; lineage is just the shorthand we keep when the stories are lost.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.