Obs. or ? dial. Also 9 Sc. and north. byspale. [ME. bispell, OE. bí·spell, bíʓ·spell, f. bí, BY + SPELL tale, story, narration; cogn. w. MHG. bîspel, bîspil ‘instance, example,’ MDu. bîspel, byspel (Kilian). As in other nominal compounds, the prefix had the strong accented form, and appears to retain the sound of by (bəi) in the dialects in which the word lingers; but it was perhaps shortened to (bi·spel) in ME.]
1. A parable.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xxi. 33. Oðero bispell heres ʓe.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., ibid. Gehyrað me oðer biʓspel.
c. 1160. Hatton G., ibid. Geherað nu oðer byspel.
c. 1175. Cott. Hom., 233. Gode menn, understandeð þis bispel.
2. A proverb.
a. 1000. Ælfric, Deut. xxviii. 37. And ʓe forwurþaþ þurh biʓspell [Wyclif & 1611 proverb] and biʓcwidas.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 127. Her-bi men segget a bi-spel.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., s.v. Gospel, Bigspell (Deut. 28. 37) signifies a by-word or Proverb; or (as it is used in the North) By-spell.
3. dial. One whose worthlessness is proverbial, who becomes a byword.
1691. Nicholson, in Ray, N. C. Words (E. D. S.), Bispel, nequam, q.d. Qui adeo insignis est Nebulo ut jam in proverbium abiit.
1709. T. Hearne, Collect. (1886), II. 281. Byspel, homo nihili: Ita Angli Boreales.
1808. Jamieson, s.v.; ‘He’s just a byspale.’ ‘He’s nae byspel mair than me.’
1811. Willan, Gloss. West R. Yorksh. (E. D. S.), Byspelt.
4. An illegitimate child, a bastard. Cf. BY-BLOW.
1781. J. Hutton, Tour Caves, Gloss. (E. D. S.), Byspel, a bastard, or an outcast in a family.
1808. Jamieson, By-spel, an illegitimate child.
