in Beetle brows, beetle-browed. Forms; 4 bitel, bytel(l, 5 betyl, bittil, 6 beetell, -ill, -yll, 7 betle, bittle, 6– beetle. [Found first in the comb. beetle-browed (1362); much later (1532), beetle is treated as a separate word in beetle brow(s; whence a derived verb to BEETLE (see next) formed by Shakespeare.
(As the 14–15th-c. form had bitel-, bytel-, it has been proposed to identify it with BITEL a. ‘biting, cutting like a sharp-edged tool,’ used by Ormin and Layamon, which is phonetically possible: but, beside the hardly satisfactory sense, there is the difficulty that bitel appears to have been obsolete for 160 years when the first example of bitel-bronwed occurs. It is more likely that the word here is one of the two sbs. BEETLE, both extant in 14th c., and both having the form bitel. The choice depends largely upon the exact meaning originally attached to ‘beetle-browed,’ which was a reproachful epithet, and appears to have referred to the shaggy prominence of the eye-brows. (Brow in ME. was always = eyebrow, not = forehead.) It is probable therefore (as suggested by Dr. F. Chance) that the comparison is to the short tufted antennæ of some species of beetles, projecting at right angles to the head, which may have been called ‘eyebrows’ in Eng. as well as in Fr.; for in French the expression sourcils de hanneton ‘cockchafers’ eyebrows’ is the name given to a species of fringe made in imitation of the antennæ of these insects.)]
1. Beetle-browed: ‘Having prominent brows,’ Johnson; ‘having black and long eye-brows,’ Bailey (1782); with earlier authorities ‘Having shaggy, bushy, or prominent eye-brows’; see esp. quots. 1400, 1591. Dr. Johnson’s explanation probably owes something to the sense attached to BEETLE v.1 Almost always reproachful, and sometimes in 17th c. simply = Lowering, scowling, sullen, surly. Cf. supercilious f. L. supercilium ‘eyebrow.’
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. V. 109. He was bitel-brouwed with twei blered eiȝen [v.r. He was bitel-browid & babirlipped, also biter-, bitter-browid. B. V. 190. bitelbrowed and baberliped also, With two blered eyghen, as a blynde hagge; v.r. bytter browid. C. VII. 198. bytelbrowed; v.r. bittur-browed.]
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, VIII. 3824. Grete ene and gray, with a grym loke … Bytell browet was the buerne, þat aboue met.
c. 1450. York Myst., Cutlers, Q iij b. Say bittilbrowed bribour!
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 42. A crooked hooked nose, beetyll browde.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Cejunto, beetle browed, toruus [1623 Cejunto, that hath bushy eie-browes, beetle-browed, or the haire of the eye-browes meeting].
1591. Harington, Orl. Fur., XLIII. cxxviii. (1634), 368. All blablipt, beetle-browd, and bottle-nozed.
1611. Cotgr., Beetle-browed, sourcilleux.—Sourcilleux, having very great eye brows, frowning, or looking sowrely; surlie or proud of countenance.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), I. 355. A beetle-browed sullen face.
1755. Smollett, Quix. (1803), I. 126. Beetlebrow’d, flat-nosed, blind of one eye.
1840. Barham, Ingol. Leg., 231. A beetle-browed hag With a knife and a bag.
b. fig. or transf.
1651. J. C[leveland], 30. The Sun wears Midnight, day is beetle-brow’d.
1837. Hawthorne, Twice-told T. (1851), II. xii. 174. One of those … wooden houses … with a beetle-browed second story projecting over the foundation.
1865. Cornh. Mag., XI. 157. Jealous loopholes or beetle-browed machicolations.
2. Beetle (qualifying brows).
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. (1557), 398/1. Tindall … so long pryed vpon them with betle browes and his britle spectacles of pride and malice.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 115. I rather would a husband wed With a beetill brow, than with a beetell hed.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., II. ix. 52. Bent hollow beetle browes.
1600. Fairfax, Tasso, X. xxii. 182. His beetle browes the Turke amazed bent.
1713. Lond. Gaz., No. 5157/4. Lost … a … Nag … very stout grown, a bittle Brow.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev. (1857), I. I. IV. iv. 108. Through whose shaggy beetle brows … there look[s] … fire of genius.
b. Of the brow or ridge of a mountain, as projecting, or perhaps as tree-clad. Cf. L. supercilium ‘eyebrow,’ also ‘brow or ridge of a mountain.’
1580. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 35. A pleasant valley of either side of which high hills lifted vp their beetle-browis, as if they would ouer looke the pleasantnesse of their vnder prospect.
1601. Weever, Myrr. Mart., E vij. Tree-garnisht Cambriaes loftie mountaines Did ouer-shade me with their beetle browes.
¶ (Confused with BEETLE sb.1)
1553–87. Foxe, A. & M., III. 140. Then my Lord said ‘Thou art an ignorant Beetle-brow.’
