bestow

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English

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WOTD – 27 March 2023

Etymology

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PIE word
*h₁epi

The verb is derived from Middle English bestowen, bistouen, bistowen (“to give, bestow; to apply (something to something else); to arrange or have control over (something); to place (someone) in a position; to use (for some purpose); (reflexive) to find (oneself) a place to live or shelter”) [and other forms],[1] from bi- (prefix forming verbs, often with a completive, figurative, or intensive meaning)[2] + stouen, stowen (“to pack (cargo) in a ship, stow; to place (someone) in a certain position; to provide quarters for, lodge; etc.”)[3][4][5] (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to place; to stand (up)”)). The English word is analysable as be- (intensifying prefix forming verbs) +‎ stow (“to put (something) away in a suitable place; etc.”).

The noun is derived from the verb.[6]

Pronunciation

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Verb

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bestow (third-person singular simple present bestows, present participle bestowing, simple past and past participle bestowed) (transitive)

  1. To apply or make use of (someone or something); to employ, to use.
    1. (specifically, obsolete) To apply (money) for some purpose; to expend, to spend.
      Synonym: lay out
  2. To impart (something) gratuitously; to present (something) to someone or something, especially as a gift or an honour; to confer, to give, to accord.
    Medals were bestowed on the winning team.
    • 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, II. Cronicles xxiiij:[7], folio c, recto, column 2:
      For yͤ vngodly Athalia & hir ſonnes haue waiſted the houſe of God: and all that was halowed for the houſe of the LORDE, haue they beſtowed on Baalim.
    • c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, […], published 1594, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
      Harke yee Lords, you ſee I haue giuen her Phiſicke, / And you muſt needs beſtovv her Funerall, […]
    • 1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], “Of the Time of the Birth of Abraham: And of the Use of This Question, for the Ordering of the Storie of the Assyrian Empire”, in The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, §. III (The Answere to One of the Obiections Proposed, Shewing that Abraham Made but One Iourney out of Mesopotamia into Canaan: And It, after His Fathers Death), page 222:
      [H]e [Moses] beſtovveth on the ſtory of Abraham fourteene chapters, beginning vvith his birth in the eleuenth, and ending vvith his death in the fiue and tvventieth; and this time endured but 175. yeares.
    • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, page 195:
      Lord, I have heard that thou art a merciful God, and haſt ordained that thy Son Jeſus Chriſt ſhould be the Saviour of the VVorld, and moreover, that thou art vvilling to beſtovv him upon ſuch a poor ſinner as I am, […]
    • 1750 August 8 (Gregorian calendar), Samuel Johnson, “No. [38]. Saturday, July 28. 1750.”, in The Rambler, volume II, Edinburgh: [[…] Sands, Murray, and Cochran]; sold by W. Gordon, C. Wright, J. Yair, […], published 1750, →OCLC, page 94:
      I am come to offer you gifts, vvhich only your ovvn folly can make vain. You here pray for vvater, and vvater vvill I beſtovv.
    • 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter VIII, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume II, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, pages 132–133:
      Soft tears again bedewed my cheeks, and I even raised my humid eyes with thankfulness towards the blessed sun which bestowed such joy upon me.
    • 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave I. Marley’s Ghost.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 11:
      He stopped at the outer door to bestow the greetings of the season on the clerk, who, cold as he was, was warmer than Scrooge; for he returned them cordially.
    • 1873, Mrs. Alexander [i.e., Annie French Hector], chapter VII, in The Wooing O’t. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley & Son, […], →OCLC, page 168:
      Sometimes I am caught by a delightful fragment in a magazine, and blaze up into the fiercest interest, bestow maledictions on the delay which the intervening month creates, but am burnt out by the time it expires, and so lose the thread.
    • 1930, Norman Lindsay, chapter 4, in Every Mother’s Son [Redheap], New York, N.Y.: Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, →OCLC, section III, page 86:
      Do they [parents] not sneakingly bestow on me their crass inability to do anything with their own misbegotten progeny, a subterfuge which I scornfully fub off on text-books?
    • 2008 September 28, Illiad [pseudonym; J. D. Frazer], “The Large Hadron Collider Game: Or ‘Why Science is Hard and Getting People to Fund It is Harder’”, in User Friendly‎[1] (webcomic), archived from the original on 2022-02-25:
      CERN bestows slush fund on the LHC. Take all pennies from the CERN space.
  3. (archaic)
    1. To place or put (someone or something) somewhere or in a certain situation; to dispose of.
      • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare,  […] [T]he Merrie Wiues of Windsor. […] (First Quarto), London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for Arthur Ihonson, […], published 1602, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]:
        The diuell take the one partie, / And his dam the other, / And theyle be both beſtovved. / I haue endured more for their ſakes, / Then man is able to endure.
        That is, the two wives will be placed in hell by the Devil and his wife.
      • 1610, John Guillim, “To the Courteous Reader”, in A Display of Heraldrie: […], London: […] William Hall for Raphe Mab, published 1611, →OCLC:
        Moreover I haue […] beſtovved the chiefe grounds, Principles, Rules, and Obſeruations [of heraldry] vnder their proper heads, and manifeſted their vſe by examples of ſpeciall choice, […]
      • c. 1615–1617 (date written; published 1652), Thomas Middleton, “The Widow”, in A[rthur] H[enry] Bullen, editor, The Works of Thomas Middleton […] (The English Dramatists), volume V, London: John C. Nimmo […], published 1885, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 128, lines 65–68:
        Here are blank warrants of all dispositions; give me but the name and nature of your malefactor, and I'll bestow him according to his merits.
        The spelling has been modernized.
      • 1717, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book IX”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume III, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 16, lines 283–284:
        VVith Bread the glitt’ring Caniſters they load, / VVhich round the Board Menætius’s Son beſtovv’d; […]
      • 1873 January 23, Robert Browning, “Part II”, in Red Cotton Night-Cap Country: Or Turf and Towers, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 116:
        The white domestic pigeon pairs secure, / Nay, does mere duty by bestowing egg / In authorized compartment, warm and safe, / Boarding about, and gilded spire above, / Hoisted on pole, to dogs' and cats' despair!
    2. To deposit (something) for safekeeping; to lay up (something) in store; to stow.
    3. (also reflexive) To provide (someone or oneself) with accommodation; to find quarters for (someone or oneself); to lodge, to quarter.
      Synonyms: house, put up
  4. (obsolete)
    1. (reflexive) To behave or conduct (oneself); to acquit.
    2. (also reflexive) To give (someone or oneself) in marriage.

Conjugation

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Conjugation of bestow
infinitive (to) bestow
present tense past tense
1st-person singular bestow bestowed
2nd-person singular bestow, bestowest† bestowed, bestowedst†
3rd-person singular bestows, bestoweth† bestowed
plural bestow
subjunctive bestow bestowed
imperative bestow —
participles bestowing bestowed

†Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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bestow (plural bestows)

  1. (obsolete, rare) An act of presenting a thing to someone or something, especially as a gift or an honour; a bestowal.
    Synonyms: bestowing, bestowment
    • 1602, William Warner, “The Fifth Booke. Chapter XXVII.”, in Albions England. A Continued Historie of the Same Kingdome, from the Originals of the First Inhabitants thereof: […], 5th edition, London: […] Edm[und] Bollifant for George Potter, […], →OCLC, page 134:
      The Muſes bacely begge, or bibbe, or both, and muſt, for vvhy? / They finde as bad Beſtoe as is their Portage beggerly: / Yea novv by melancholie vvalkes and thred-bare coates vve geſſe / At Clyents and at Poetes: none vvorke more and profit leſſe, […]

References

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  1. ^ “bistouen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “bi-, pref.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  3. ^ “stouen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  4. ^ “bestow, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2023.
  5. ^ “bestow, v.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.
  6. ^ “bestow, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2023.

Anagrams

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