An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/bieten
bieten, vb., ‘to offer, make a bid,’ from MidHG. bieten, OHG. biotan, ‘to offer, present, command’ (similar meanings are united in the MidHG. word for befehlen); AS. beódan, ‘to announce, offer’; E. bid combines the meanings of Germ. bieten and bitten. Goth. anabiudan, ‘to command, arrange,’ faúrbiudan, ‘to forbid’ (OHG. farbiotan, MidHG. verbieten, AS. forbeódan, E. forbid). Goth. biudan, as well as the whole of this class, points to a pre-Teut. root bhudh; Gr. πυθ (according to the well-known rule for φυθ) in πυνθάνομαι, πυθέσθαι ‘to ask, demand, learn by asking, hear,’ approaches one of the meanings of the Teut. vb.; the latter has an active signification ‘to publish, communicate,’ while the Gr. middle vb. means ‘to know by report, obtain information.’ With the sensuous meaning of HG. bieten is connected the OInd. root budh (for bhudh), ‘to make a present to one’; yet it most frequently means ‘to be watchful, astir,’ then ‘to observe, notice’; and with this is associated OBulg. bŭděti, Lith. buděti, ‘to awake’; Lith. budrùs, ‘watchful’; also Lith. baústi, ‘to chastise,’ and OIr. buide, ‘thanks.’ It is a prim. Aryan verbal stem with a great variety of meanings, the chief of which are ‘to present (make a present to one) — to enjoin (to command, communicate) — to be active, awake.’ To the same stem belongs an OTeut. word for ‘table, dish’ (both conceived as the dispensers of food?), which has been mentioned under Beute (Goth. biuþs, AS. beód), also bote, from MidHG. bote, OHG. boto (AS. boda, whence E. to bode), lit. ‘herald.’