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begeben

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

German

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Etymology

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be- +‎ geben. Cognate with English begive.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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begeben (class 5 strong, third-person singular present begibt, past tense begab, past participle begeben, past subjunctive begäbe, auxiliary haben)

  1. (reflexive, formal) to go; to make one's way; to repair
    Er begab sich auf den Heimweg. ― He made his way home.
    • 1931, Arthur Schnitzler, Flucht in die Finsternis, S. Fischer Verlag, page 14:
      Er begab sich ins Klavierzimmer, griff ein paar Akkorde auf dem verstimmten Flügel, verließ aber bald wieder den Raum, [...]
      He went to the piano room, stroke a few chords on the out-of-tune grand piano, but soon left the room again, [...]
  2. (reflexive, impersonal) to happen
    Und es begab sich zu jener Zeit, dass .... ― And it came to pass in those days, that ...
  3. to issue
    Die XY AG hat eine Anleihe begeben. ― The XY stock company has issued a loan.
  4. (reflexive) to voluntarily renounce or relinquish [with genitive ‘something’]
    Synonym: verzichten
    sich eines Anspruchs begeben ― to relinquish a claim

Conjugation

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Derived terms

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Further reading

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