An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/beben

by Friedrich Kluge

beben, vb., ‘to tremble, shake,’ from MidHG. biben, OHG. bibên, ‘to shiver, tremble’; Gr. φέβομας, on account of the non-permutation of β to p and because of the ε of the root syllable, cannot be originally cognate with beben. The OTeut. word has i; comp. OSax. biƀôn, OIc. bifa, AS. beofian (from biƀôn), OHG. bibêt, ‘he trembles,’ corresponds exactly to Sans. bíbhêti, ‘he is afraid,’ in which bi- (for bhi) is the reduplicated syllable, and bhê for bhai is the augmented root syllable. The OInd. verb bhî, ‘to be afraid,’ forms its pres. by reduplication — bíbhêmi, bíbhéši, bíbhêti; to these Goth. *bibaim, *bibais, *bibaiþ, would correspond; this present was then, on account of its apparent deriv. ai, classed among the weak verbs in ai (Goth. habaiþ, OHG. habêt). The root bhî (Sans. bhî, ‘fear,’ bhîmá, ‘fearful’) is found in OSlov. boją sę, ‘I am afraid,’ běsŭ, ‘demon,’ Lith. byóti-s, ‘to be afraid,’ báime, ‘fear,’ bajùs, ‘terrible,’ baisà, ‘fright’ (and perhaps ModHG. beilen). Bi- is one of the few examples of reduplication in the pres. tense preserved in the Teut. group (comp. zittern), just as the perfect ModHG. thät, from OHG. tëta, is the sole instance of reduplication preserved in the perf. tense.