byword

English

Etymology

From Middle English byword, byworde (“proverb”), from Old English bīword, bīwyrd, bīwyrde (“proverb, household word", also "adverb”), from Proto-West Germanic *bīwurdī, equivalent to by- +‎ word. Compare Latin proverbium, which byword may possibly be a translation of. Cognate with Old High German pīwurti (“proverb”). Compare also Old English bīspel (“proverb, example”), bīcwide (“byword, proverb, tale, fable”), Dutch bijwoord (“adverb”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbaɪ.wə(ɹ)d/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbaɪ.wɚd/

Noun

byword (plural bywords)

1. A proverb or proverbial expression, common saying; a frequently used word or phrase.
2. A characteristic word or expression; a word or phrase associated with a person or group.
3. Someone or something that stands as an example (i.e. metonymically) for something else, by having some of that something's characteristic traits.
   • 1846, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Christmas Banquet”, in Mosses from an Old Manse:

     Illustrious unfortunates attract a wider sympathy, not because their griefs are more intense, but because, being set on lofty pedestals, they the better serve mankind as instances and bywords of calamity.

4. An object of notoriety or contempt, scorn or derision.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 17:6:

     He hath made me also a byword of the people […]

   • 1890, Oscar Wilde, chapter XII, in The Picture of Dorian Gray:

     "I know you and Harry are inseparable. Surely for that reason, if for none other, you should not have made his sister's name a by-word."

5. A nickname or epithet.

Translations

a proverb

• Bulgarian: погово́рка (bg) f (pogovórka)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 格言 (zh) (géyán), 民諺／民谚 (mínyàn)

• Dutch: spreekwoord (nl)
• Estonian: vanasõna
• French: proverbe (fr) m
• German: Sprichwort (de) n
• Icelandic: málsháttur (is), máltæki
• Italian: proverbio (it)
• Japanese: ことわざ (ja) (kotowaza), 諺 (ja) (ことわざ, kotowaza)
• Korean: 속담 (ko) (sokdam)
• Maori: pepeha
• Middle English: byword
• Portuguese: dito (pt) m
• Russian: погово́рка (ru) f (pogovórka), при́тча во язы́цех (ru) f (prítča vo jazýcex), прибау́тка (ru) f (pribaútka)
• Spanish: refrán (es), proverbio (es), estribillo (es)
• Swedish: ordspråk (sv), ordstäv (sv)

someone who stands for something else

• Dutch: spotnaam (nl)
• Estonian: isiksus
• Maori: mūrau
• Russian: олицетворение (ru) n (olicetvorenije)

See also

• bispel
• byspel

Further reading

• “byword”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• biword, biworde, bywoorde, by-word, byworde

Etymology

From Old English bīword, modified from earlier bīwyrde, from Proto-West Germanic *bīwurdī; equivalent to by- +‎ word.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbiːˌwurd/, /ˈbiːˌwoːrd/

Noun

byword

1. byword

Descendants

• English: byword

References

• “bī-wǒrd, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 27 February 2020.