Obs. Forms: 1– by, 4 bi, bii, bij, bie, 9 bye. [north. OE. bý, prob. a. ON. bœ-r, bý-r (Sw. and Da. by) habitation, village, town, f. búa to dwell; cf. BIG v. Retained in place-names, as Whitby, Grimsby, Derby.]

1

  A place of habitation; a village or town.

2

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Mark v. 3. Se ðe hus vel lytelo by hæfde in byrʓennum.

3

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 19511. To preche he come intill a bi þat men cleped samari.

4

c. 1314.  Guy Warw. (1840), 267. Balder bern was non in bi.

5

[1803.  R. Anderson, Cumbrld. Ballads, xxxiii. 71. There’s Oughterby and Souterby, And hys beath far and weyde.]

6

  b.  Comb., as by-mill ‘town-mill,’ by-well.

7

1456.  in Ripon Ch. Acts, Add. 383. Juxta Byemyllne. Note. The village well at North Kelsey, in Lincolnshire, is still called the Bye well.

8


  By sb.2; see after BY prep. and adv.

9