betide means often used in a prediction (chiefly in woe betide) or a wish: to happen to (someone or something); to befall. It carries an Arena rating of 1712, earned across 95 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, betide ranks #2,331 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #3,249 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #4,058 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #4,320 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
betide is pronounced /bɪˈtaɪd/.
Why “betide” is a great word
BETIDE — [Verb] To happen or occur, especially as a fateful event befalling someone. From Middle English bityden, from bi- (completive/intensive prefix) + tyden ("to happen, befall"), from Old English tīdan ("to happen"), related to tīd ("time"), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂- ("to divide, share"). Unlike "befall" (which leans toward misfortune) or "occur" (which is general and clinical), "betide" carries the neutral gravity of an archaic decree. It is the scent of ozone before the long-awaited storm, the irrevocable click of a lock turning in a tale, or the final, quiet warmth leaving a hearth at night—a word that treats every event as an appointed parcel of time, delivered by the quiet machinery of circumstance.
Etymology
From Middle English bityden [and other forms]; from bi- (prefix forming verbs, usually with a completive, figurative, or intensive sense) + tyden (“to come about, happen, occur; to befall, become of, happen to (someone); to be the fate of (someone); to await (someone); to fare, get along”); tyden is derived from Old English tīdan (“to befall, betide, happen”), related to tīd (“time; season; hour”) (both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂- (“to divide, share”) or its extended form *deh₂-y-, whence *dh₂ítis (“time”)) + -an (suffix forming the infinitive of most verbs). The English word is analysable as be- + tide (“(obsolete) to happen, occur”).
verb
- Often used in a prediction (chiefly in woe betide) or a wish: to happen to (someone or something); to befall.e.g.“Whether good or ill betide you, trust in yourself.”
- Chiefly in the third person: to happen; to take place; to bechance, to befall.e.g.“If he were dead what would betide of me.” — c. 1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Sims [and Peter Short] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC, [Act
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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