bequeath v.

word-forming element of verbs and nouns from verbs, with a wide range of meaning: "about, around; thoroughly, completely; to make, cause, seem; to provide with; at, on, to, for;" from Old English be- "about, around, on all sides" (the unstressed form of bi "by;" see by (prep.)). The form has remained by- in stressed positions and in some more modern formations (bylaw, bygones, bystander).

The Old English prefix also was used to make transitive verbs and as a privative prefix (as in behead). The sense "on all sides, all about" naturally grew to include intensive uses (as in bespatter "spatter about," therefore "spatter very much," besprinkle, etc.). Be- also can be causative, or have just about any sense required. The prefix was productive 16c.-17c. in forming useful words, many of which have not survived, such as bethwack "to thrash soundly" (1550s) and betongue "to assail in speech, to scold" (1630s).

"to say, say as follows," from Middle English quoth, from Old English cweþ (Mercian), cwæþ (Northumbrian), third person singular past tense of cweoþan, cweoþa "to say, speak; name, call; declare, proclaim" (Middle English quethan), from Proto-Germanic *kwethanan (source also of Old Saxon quethan, Old Norse kveða, Old Frisian quetha, Old High German quedan, Gothic qiþan).

This is often traced to PIE root *gwet- "to say, speak," but Boutkan, on the grounds of formal objection to proposed cognates (Sanskrit gadati "speaks," Old Welsh guetid "say," Latin vetare "not allow"), has it as of "no (certain) IE etymology," and writes, "This is complicated."

Related to bequeath and bequest. Compare also archaic interjection quotha "forsooth, indeed," originally "said he," 1510s in sarcastic use, "originally a parenthetical phrase used in repeating the words of another with more or less contempt or disdain" [Century Dictionary], from Middle English, from Old English cwæðe ge.

c. 1300, "act of bequeathing," from be- + *cwis, *cwiss "saying" (related to quoth, from Proto-Germanic *kwessiz, from PIE root *gwet- "to say, speak"). Also compare bequeath. With unetymological -t (as in behest). The meaning "legacy, that which is bequeathed" is recorded from late 15c.