v. Obs. impers. Forms: Pres. 1 byreð, 3 burþ, birþ, 4 birt, birs, beres, bers. Pa. t. 1 byrede, 3–4 burd(e, bird(e, byrd. [OE. byrian impers. (more usually ʓebyrian), cogn. w. ON. byrja, OHG. purjan, MHG. buren, bürn to lift or hold up, MDu. bören, boren, Du. beuren to lift:—OTeut. *burjan; f. root ber- BEAR. Franck connects the primitive sense of ‘lift, raise’ with that of OE. ʓebyrian (byrian), Ger. gebühren, by supposing the latter to have been orig. ‘to arise, come up (as an event), occur, happen, befall, fall to as an occurrence, whence “fall to as a share, right, duty, etc.”’] To fall to, pertain, belong; to behove, be proper.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Mark iv. 38. Ne to ðe byreð [Rushw. ʓibyreð] þæt we sie dead?
c. 975. Rushw. G., Matt. xii. 4. Þa þe ne byrede him [Lindisf. neron ʓelefed, Ags. G. nærun him alyfede] to etanne.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 17164. Birt þe thinc apon mi pine.
c. 1325. Metr. Hom., 2. On the bird be his mast thouht. Ibid., 10. Forthi bers us trow thaim. Ibid., 84. Wel birs us blis the derworthelye.
c. 1375. ? Barbour, St. Martha, 152. Me byrd be blyth þat sycht to se.
