bifallen
Middle English
Alternative forms
- bivallen, bifeallen
Etymology
From Old English befeallan, from Proto-Germanic *bifallaną, equivalent to bi- + fallen.
Verb
bifallen (third-person singular simple present bifalleth, present participle bifallende, first-/third-person singular past indicative bifell, past participle bifallen)
- to befall, happen
- c. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue, lines 19-20:
- Bifil that in that seson, on a day, / In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay
- It happened that, in that season, on a day / In Southwark, at the Tabard, as I lay
-
Descendants
- English: befall
- Scots: befaw
References
- “bifallen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Swedish
Declension
| Inflection of bifallen | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Indefinite | Positive | Comparative | Superlative2 |
| Common singular | bifallen | — | — |
| Neuter singular | bifallet | — | — |
| Plural | bifallna | — | — |
| Masculine plural3 | bifallne | — | — |
| Definite | Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| Masculine singular1 | bifallne | — | — |
| All | bifallna | — | — |
| 1) Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine. 2) The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative. 3) Dated or archaic | |||
Anagrams
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