bigge

English

Adjective

bigge

1. Obsolete spelling of big
   • 1598, Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, Vol. XII., America, Part I.‎^[1]:

     Sebastian Cabot himselfe named those lands Baccalaos, because that in the Seas thereabout hee found so great multitudes of certaine bigge fishes much like vnto Tunies, (which the inhabitants called Baccalaos) that they sometimes stayed his shippes.

   • 1733, Various, Great Epochs in American History, Vol. II‎^[2]:

     The King of the Paschattowayes had drawen together 1500 bowe-men, which wee ourselves saw, the woods were fired in manner of beacons the night after; and for that our vessel was the greatest that euer those Indians saw, the scowtes reported wee came in a Canoe, as bigge as an Island, and had as many men as there bee trees in the woods.

   • 1890, William Painter, The Palace of Pleasure, Volume 1‎^[3]:

     Wherefore takinge vp a bigge stone, he began againe with greater blowes to beate at the doore.

Middle English

Etymology

Unknown, possibly from a dialect of Old Norse, from a derivative of Proto-Germanic *bugja- (“swollen up, thick”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-, *bu- (“to swell”). Compare dialectal Norwegian bugge (“great man”).

Adjective

bigge

1. big; large; of considerable size

Descendants

• English: big
• Yola: big

References

• “bigge, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Northern Sami

Pronunciation

• (Kautokeino) IPA^(key): /ˈpiːɡːɡe/

Verb

bīgge

1. inflection of bieggat:
   1. first-person dual present indicative
   2. third-person plural past indicative