bef

bef

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Benabena.

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Benabena terms

• IPA^(key): /bɛf/
• Hyphenation: bef
• Rhymes: -ɛf

From Middle Dutch beffe (“cap, collar”), from Old French biffe. Further origin uncertain. Compare German Beffchen.

bef f (plural beffen, diminutive befje n)

1. (archaic) collar
2. an ornamental pair of bands worn hanging over the chest, notably as part of formal dress by magistrates, professors and certain Catholic and Protestant clergy
3. by analogy, any of certain other similar objects
4. a patch on the throat or chest of a different color on cats or dogs
5. (slang) the vulva

bef f (plural beffen, diminutive befje n)

1. a nickname for an unspecified small Dutch coin

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

bef

1. inflection of beffen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

From French boeuf.

bef

1. bull
2. beef

• Baker, Philip; Hookoomsing, Vinesh Y. (1987), Diksiyoner kreol morisyeṅ [Mauritian Creole Dictionary] (in French and English), Paris: L'Harmattan, →ISBN

• beef, buf
• beeff, beeffe, befe, bief (Late Middle English); byffe (Promptorium Parvulorum)
• beffe, beif, beiff (Northern); beof, boef, bouf (especially Southern, West Midland)

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman beof, Old French buef; ultimately from Latin bovem, accusative of bōs. Doublet of cow; first attested in c. 1300.

• IPA^(key): /beːf/
• IPA^(key): /bøːf/ (Southern, West Midland)

bef (uncountable, genitive singular beves)

1. beef (the meat of a cow or ox)
2. cow or ox, especially as a carcass

• English: beef (see there for further descendants)
• Middle Scots: beif
  • Scots: beef

• “bẹ̄f, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 3 April 2018.

From French boeuf.

bef

1. bull
2. beef

• D'Offay, Danielle; Lionnet, Guy (1982), Diksyonner kreol-franse [Creole-French Dictionary] (in French), Hamburg: Buske, →ISBN

• IPA^(key): /bef/

bef (genitive befa, plural befs)

1. alcove