bizen
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English bysen, partly from Old English bȳsen (“example, pattern, model, similitude, parable, parallel, rule, command, precept”), and partly from Old Norse býsn (“a wonder, a portentous thing”), both from Proto-Germanic *būsniz (“command, precept”), from Proto-Germanic *beudaną (“to ask, beg”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewdʰ- (“to be awake, perceive fully”). Cognate with Gothic 𐌱𐌿𐍃𐌽𐍃 (busns, “command, order”).
Pronunciation
Noun
bizen (plural bizens)
- (UK dialects, Northern England, Scotland, rare, obsolete) Something monstrous or portentous; a shocking sight; sorry spectacle; disgraceful thing.
- 1823, Robert Anderson, Ballads in the Cumberland Dialect, page 155:
- She's a shem and a bizen to all the heale town.
- 1866, Eliza Lynn Linton, Lizzie Lorton of Greyrigg[1], page 97:
- […] and a bizen like this.
- c. 1874 E. Waugh, Jannock ii. 13, as quoted in The English Dialect Dictionary and in the quotation, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (1887), of J. H. Nodal and G. Milnar's Gloss[ary of the] Lancashire Dial[ect] (1875):
- It'll be a sham an' a bizen, if we cannot find him a menseful of a dinner.
- (UK dialects, Northern England, Scotland) Something serving as a warning or an example to be avoided.
Quotations
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:bizen.
Anagrams
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