Dictionary › verb › *ghabh- › geben › begeben (sich)

begeben (sich)

(verb)
Word type: verb
Based on: geben
Perfect (spoken past): hat begeben
Preterite (written past): begab

Meanings

1.
to go to
(A fancy, orderly sounding word for going (walking) to a place. Think a theater where the people go to the exit. The self reference is in Accusative. Also used figuratively sometimes, particularly with danger.)
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2.
to happen, to take place
(This has a high "fairy tale factor" and you pretty much only find it in books in the phrasing "Es begab sich, dass/als...". But this meaning is the base of the noun "die Begebenheit".)
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Examples

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Word Family

Root: *ghabh-

The core idea of this root was:

grabbing, taking

The meaning of geben and to give comes from the idea of grabbing something to hand it to someone, but the family is more diverse than that.
It’s also the origin of the families of habit and hibit, which both come from the Latin verb habere, which meant to hold. That’s also where able is from, which evolved from the word habilitate.

And also part of the family are due, duty and debt. They all go back to a Latin verb debere, which was about the idea of having to give someone something, and which is nothing other than a combination of de- with … habere again.
Here’s a list of the most important English relatives:

  • debt (having to give)
  • duty (having to give)
  • due (having to give)
  • able (capable of “holding”)
  • habit (something you “hold”)
  • inhabit (holding a place and living there)
  • inhibit (holding in)
  • exhibit (holding outward)
  • prohibit (holding/taking away)
  • to give
  • gift
  • forgive (give away)
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