Forms: 3 beggen, 4–7 begge, 4–6 begg, 6 (Sc.) bayg, 5– beg. [Of uncertain origin: see note below.]
1. To ask alms or by way of alms.
a. trans. To ask (bread, money, etc.) in alms or as a charitable gift; to procure (one’s living) by begging.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 356. Scheome ich telle uorte … beggen ase on harlot … his liueneð.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. VI. 195. Blynde and bedreden … þat seten to begge silver.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 28/2. Beggyn bodely fode.
c. 1500. Bk. Mayd Emlyn, xxvii. in Poet. Tracts (Percy Soc.), 28. Longe or she were dede, She wente to begge her brede.
1611. Bible, Ps. xxxvii. 25. Yet haue I not seene the righteous forsaken, nor his seede begging bread.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, 24. He begged his bread from door to door.
b. intr. To ask alms; esp. to ask alms habitually, to live by asking alms. Const. absol.; of, from, formerly at, a person; for alms.
[c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past., 284. Hit is swiðe wel be ðæm ʓecweden ðæt he eft bedeciʓe on sumera, & him mon ðonne noht ne selle.]
a. 1300. Cursor M., 4708. Þai war sa fele þat begand [v.r. beggand] yode.
1382. Wyclif, John ix. 8. He that sat and beggide.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sompn. T., 4. Ther wente a lymytour aboute To preche and eek to begge.
a. 1450. York Myst., Barbers, 8. What riche man gose from dore to dore To begge at hym þat has right noght.
1530. Palsgr., 446/1. I begge for the guylde of saynt Anthonye.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 138. Thou begst at wrong doore, and so hast begd longe.
1601. Shaks., Per., I. iv. 41. Those palates … Would now be glad of bread, and beg for it.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., IX. xlvii. (1612), 218. Fring’d and ymbroidred Petticoats now begge [i.e., are worn by beggars].
a. 1617. Hieron, Wks., II. 392. We haue an ordinary saying …‘They which begge must not choose.’
1718. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., II. liv. 80. While the post-horses are changed, the whole town comes out to beg.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng., I. i. 74. Licences to beg were at that time granted.
2. transf. To ask as a favor or act of grace; hence to ask humbly, earnestly, supplicatingly; to crave, entreat. (With many const.: cf. ASK.)
a. trans. Const. of, from (formerly at).
The early instances are closely connected with sense 1.
[1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 3219. Þai may nathyng begg ne borowe, To help þam, þat þai war out broght [of purgatory].
1399. Langl., Rich. Redeless, III. 149. Beggith and borwith of burgeis in tounes Ffurris of ffoyne, and oþer felle-ware.]
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531). The miserable nature of man … beggeth and craueth of god socour and relefe.
1534. Tindale, Matt. xxvii. 58. Ioseph … went to Pilate and begged the body of Iesus.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., I. i. 41. I beg the ancient priuiledge of Athens.
1605. Bk. Com. Prayer, Gunpowd. Tr. All which we humbly beg for the sake of our blessed Lord and Saviour.
1667. Pepys, Diary (1879), IV. 239. All the world will believe, that we do go to beg a peace.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 168, ¶ 11. I beg the Favour of you … to send us Word.
1746. H. Walpole, Corr., 12 June. I have three favours to beg of you.
1752. Mrs. Lennox, Fem. Quix., I. II. ix. 116. She refused to give him a glorious scarf which she wore, though he begged it on his knees.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes, iii. 141. The Florentines begged back his [Dante’s] body … the Ravenna people would not give it.
B. absol. or intr.; with same const.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 207. How I would make him fawne, and begge, and seeke.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., Stat. Robt. II., 48. Na Schiref … sall dar or presume to begge … fra the inhabitants of the cuntrie.
1718. Pope, Iliad, I. 19. Apollo’s awful ensigns grace his hands: By these he begs.
1845. Hood, Last Man, xxxvii. In vain My desperate fancy begs.
c. To beg for a thing.
1576. Fleming, trans. Caius’ Dogs, in Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 139. Dogs … are taught … to beg for their meat.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., I. i. 455. Kneele in the streetes, and beg for grace in vaine.
1649. Bp. Reynolds, Hosea, iii. 11. I must … begge for pardon.
1876. Green, Short Hist., iv. § 3 (1882), 177. Single-handed [he] forced him to beg for mercy.
d. To beg to do a thing, or that a thing may be.
1485. Caxton, Paris & V. (1868), Prol. I beg to request.
1575. Ld. Lansdowne, in Thynne’s Animadv., Introd. 55. Begginge, uppon the knees of my harte, to come before your Lordship.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., IV. i. 72. I should haue begg’d I might haue bene employd. Ibid. (1605), Lear, II. iv. 157. On my knees I begge, That you’ll vouchsafe me Rayment, Bed, and Food.
1654. Earl Orrery, Parthenissa (1676), 679. I passionately beg’d to wait upon him.
1767. Wilkes, Corr. (1805), III. 197. I shall very soon beg to call the public attention to some points of national importance.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 613. Shrewsbury begged that … he might be appointed.
† e. To beg of a person for a thing. Obs.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., III. ii. 108. If she be by, Beg of her for remedy.
f. To beg of (formerly at) a person to do a thing, or that a thing may be.
1604. Shaks., Oth., V. ii. 229. He begg’d of me to steale ’t.
1665. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), III. 174. Our prisoners … beg at us, as a mercy, to knock them on the head.
1769. Junius Lett., xxi. 99. I must beg of you to print a few lines in explanation.
1799. Southey, Eng. Eclog., vii. Wks. III. 35. [He] would come … and beg of me To tell him stories of his ancestors.
1842. Tennyson, Dora, 121. I will beg of him to take thee back.
g. trans. To beg a person to do a thing.
1675. Locke, Lett. Person of Qual., Wks. 1794, IX. 207. He begged me to consider … whether in such a case, [etc.].
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 117, ¶ 5. I begged my friend Sir Roger to go with me.
1778. H. Bowman, Trav., 266. I begged him to explain himself.
1876. Green, Short Hist., iii. § 5 (1882), 142. The king … begged him to write the story of the day’s proceedings.
3. In Beg pardon, excuse, leave, etc.: beside the strict sense as in 2, the whole expression is often merely a courteous or apologetic mode of asking what is expected, or even of taking as a matter of course.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. v. 6. Falls not the axe vpon the humbled neck, But first begs pardon. Ibid. (1602), Ham., IV. vii. 45. To-morrow shall I begge leaue to see your Kingly Eyes.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 74, ¶ 2. I must however beg Leave to dissent from so great an Authority. Ibid., ¶ 15. I shall only beg Pardon for such a Profusion of Latin Quotations.
1734. Watts, Reliq. Juv. (1789), 270. In the business of Transubstantiation, he begs your excuse.
1754. Chatham, Lett. Nephew, iv. 22. There is likewise a particular attention required to contradict with good manners; such as, begging pardon, begging leave to doubt, and such like phrases.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. iii. 17. You begged my pardon.
Mod. I beg your pardon; I did not quite catch what you said. I have received your letter, and beg leave to say in reply….
† 4. In Anglo-French and probably also in English ‘begger to beg’ was used euphemistically in sense of ‘exact as a benevolence.’
1292. Britton, I. xxii. § 11. Et de ceux qi coillent garbes en Aust, agneus et purceus, et issi vount begaunt, et les fount norir en lour baillies al grevaunce del people. Ibid., § 15. Touz nos autres, qe gentz de religioum et autres gentz grevent … par begger [v.r. beguigner] merrym ou fustz ou autre chose a eus.
5. † a. To beg a person: to petition the Court of Wards (established by Hen. VIII., and suppressed under Chas. II.) for the custody of a minor, an heiress, or an idiot, as feudal superior or as having interest in the matter; hence also fig. To beg (any one) for a fool or idiot: to take him for, set him down as, a fool. Obs.
1584. D. Fenner, Def. Ministers (1587), 51. Then would you haue proued vs asses, not begged vs for innocents.
1589. Hay any Work, 71. It is time to begg the for a swagg.
1596. Harington, Metam. Ajax, 46. He proued a wiser man by much, then he that begged him.
1604. T. Wright, Passions, III. i. 81. He may be begd for an ideot.
1636. Davenant, Wits, in Dodsley, VIII. 509 (N.). I fear you will be begg’d at court, unless you come off thus.
1639. J. Mayne, City Match, II. vi. And that a great man Did mean to beg you for—his daughter.
1696. Stillingfl., 12 Serm., ii. 59. That we may not therefore seem to beg all wicked men for fools.
1736. Hervey, Mem., II. 143. Moyle either deserved to be … begged for a fool, or hanged for a knave.
b. To beg off (trans., and intr. for refl.): to obtain by entreaty the release of (any one), or of oneself, from a penalty, or liability.
1741. Richardson, Pamela, II. 292. What, said she, is the Creature begging me off from Insult?
Mod. He promised at first to go with us, but he has since begged off.
6. To take for granted without warrant; esp. in To beg the question: to take for granted the matter in dispute, to assume without proof.
1581. W. Clarke, in Confer., IV. (1584), F fiij. I say this is still to begge the question.
1687. Settle, Refl. Dryden, 13. Here hee’s at his old way of Begging the meaning.
1680. Burnet, Rochester (1692), 82. This was to assert or beg the thing in Question.
1788. Reid, Aristotle’s Log., v. § 3. 118. Begging the question is when the thing to be proved is assumed in the premises.
1852. Rogers, Ecl. Faith, 251. Many say it is begging the point in dispute.
1870. Bowen, Logic, ix. 294. The vulgar equivalent for petitio principii is begging the question.
[The notion that beg had to do with the bag carried by a beggar, as if he were a ‘bagger,’ finds no etymological corroboration. The Flemish beggen appealed to by Littré under Beguin has no existence (Cosijn). Mr. H. Sweet has suggested that ME. beggen might be worn down from the rare OE. bedecian ‘to beg,’ found once (in Past. Care), and obscurely connected with Gothic bidagwa ‘beggar,’ f. bidjan ‘to ask, beg.’ This has much to recommend it; but the phonetic connection of beggen and bedecian is by no means established, and there is the serious historical difficulty that no connecting links are to be found, there being no trace of the word in any form between K. Ælfred’s bedecian before 900 and the regular use of the modern beg and beggar in the 13th c. Perhaps the most likely derivation is from the OF. begart, begard, and begar, med.L. begardus = BEGHARD, or its synonym beguin, BEGUIN, and deriv. vb. beguigner, beguiner ‘to act the beguin.’ It is known that the Beghards or Beguins were, or soon became, a lay mendicant order, and that in the 13th c. mendicants calling themselves, or called, by these names, swarmed over Western Europe, ‘laici, qui sub prætextis cujusdam religionis fictæ Begardos se appellant … qui extra religionem approbatam validam mendicantes discurrunt’ (Council of Treves 1310). It is notable that in one of the two passages where Britton has Anglo-French begger to beg (see 4 above), the reading of two 14th c. MSS. is beguigner, showing that this was at any rate identical in sense with ‘beg.’ So also we find in Sym. de Hesdin a. 1380 (Godef.), ‘il n’y eust pas tant de begars et de begardes qui mengassent leur pain en oiseuse’ (there would not have been so many begards, male and female, to eat their bread in idleness), which strongly suggests the Eng. beggar. About this time the words beggare and beggen arose in English: the exact process of their formation, and their actual relation to each other can only be conjectured: possibly begg-en was shortened from beguin-er, possibly it was taken from begg-are, and this directly from OF. begar above. The -are of the Ancren Riwle proves nothing, being the regular agent ending, as seen in bacbitare, demare, reuare, etc.]
