Biber

See also: biber and bīber

English

Proper noun

the Biber

1. A right tributary of the Danube river in Bavaria, Germany.

German

Alternative forms

• Bieber (surname, otherwise obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle High German biber, from Old High German bibar, bibur, from Proto-West Germanic *bebru, from Proto-Germanic *bebruz (“beaver”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰébʰrus. The spelling with ⟨i⟩ instead of ⟨ie⟩ is unusual. Biber is perhaps the only inherited Germanic word in which /iː/ is spelt ⟨i⟩ without there being a special reason for this (e.g. homophone disambiguation as in Lid, word-initial position as in Igel, function-word character as in mir).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbiːbər/, [ˈbiː.bɐ]

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Bi‧ber

Noun

Biber m (strong, genitive Bibers, plural Biber, diminutive Biberchen n, feminine Biberin)

1. beaver

Declension

Declension of Biber [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Biber	die	Biber
genitive	eines	des	Bibers	der	Biber
dative	einem	dem	Biber	den	Bibern
accusative	einen	den	Biber	die	Biber

Proper noun

Biber m or f (proper noun, strong, genitive Bibers or (with an article) Biber, plural Bibers or Biber)

1. a surname, variant of Bieber

Declension

Declension of Biber [masculine // feminine, surname]

	singular						plural
	masculine			feminine
	indef.	def.	noun	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	(ein)	(der)	Biber	(eine)	(die)	Biber	(die)	Bibers, Biber
genitive	(eines)	(des)	Bibers, Biber1	(einer)	(der)	Biber	(der)	Bibers, Biber
dative	(einem)	(dem)	Biber	(einer)	(der)	Biber	(den)	Bibers, Biber
accusative	(einen)	(den)	Biber	(eine)	(die)	Biber	(die)	Bibers, Biber

¹With an article.

Further reading

• “Biber”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[1] (in German)
• “Biber” in Duden online
• “Biber” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon

Luxembourgish

Alternative forms

• Biwer, Biwwer (both obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from German Biber, displacing the native forms above.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbiːbɐ]

Noun

Biber m (plural Biber)

1. beaver