Biber
English
Proper noun
the Biber
- A right tributary of the Danube river in Bavaria, Germany.
German
Alternative forms
- Bieber (surname, otherwise obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle High German biber, from Old High German bibar, bibur, from Proto-West Germanic *bebru, from Proto-Germanic *bebruz (“beaver”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰébʰrus. The spelling with ⟨i⟩ instead of ⟨ie⟩ is unusual. Biber is perhaps the only inherited Germanic word in which /iː/ is spelt ⟨i⟩ without there being a special reason for this (e.g. homophone disambiguation as in Lid, word-initial position as in Igel, function-word character as in mir).
Pronunciation
Noun
Biber m (strong, genitive Bibers, plural Biber, diminutive Biberchen n, feminine Biberin)
Declension
Proper noun
Biber m or f (proper noun, strong, genitive Bibers or (with an article) Biber, plural Bibers or Biber)
Declension
| singular | plural | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | feminine | |||||||
| indef. | def. | noun | indef. | def. | noun | def. | noun | |
| nominative | (ein) | (der) | Biber | (eine) | (die) | Biber | (die) | Bibers, Biber |
| genitive | (eines) | (des) | Bibers, Biber1 | (einer) | (der) | Biber | (der) | Bibers, Biber |
| dative | (einem) | (dem) | Biber | (einer) | (der) | Biber | (den) | Bibers, Biber |
| accusative | (einen) | (den) | Biber | (eine) | (die) | Biber | (die) | Bibers, Biber |
1With an article.
Further reading
- “Biber”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache[1] (in German)
- “Biber” in Duden online
- “Biber” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
Luxembourgish
Alternative forms
- Biwer, Biwwer (both obsolete)
Etymology
Borrowed from German Biber, displacing the native forms above.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈbiːbɐ]
Noun
Biber m (plural Biber)