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beaver

bea·ver

UK/ˈbiːvə/ US/ˈbivɚ/ fairly common slang us
noun (6) verb (1)

noun

1.

the soft brown fur of the beaver

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

verb

1.

Origin

From Middle English bever, from Old English befer, from Proto-West Germanic *bebru, from Proto-Germanic *bebruz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰébʰrus (“beaver”). Cognate with West Frisian bever, Dutch bever, French bièvre, German Biber, dialectal Swedish bjur. Non-Germanic cognates include Welsh befer, Latin fiber, Lithuanian bẽbras, Russian бобр (bobr), Avestan 𐬠𐬀𐬎𐬎𐬭𐬀 (bauura), and Sanskrit बभ्रु (bábhru, “mongoose; ichneumon”). Slang use to refer to a woman evolved from use to refer to pubic hair, which evolved from use to refer to beards, which evolved from use to refer to the furry animal or its fur.

Phrases

  • American beaver
  • bank beaver
  • beaver away
  • Beaver City
  • Beaver County
  • Beaver Creek
  • beaver dam
  • beaver deceiver
  • Beaver Town
  • Beaver Township
  • City of Beaver
  • Town of Beaver

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Parts

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.