English word origin

Etymology of B

From the Old English letter B, from 7th century replacement by Latin B of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᛒ (b, beorc).

4 source sectionsExtended source reportWiktionary original ↗

In this entry · 4 source sections

The source etymologies

Wiktionary via Kaikki / Wiktextract

The source reports below are imported and unreviewed by *SET-U. Separate numbered origins and differing source variants are preserved; agreement within this extraction is not independent corroboration.

Source etymology 1

Original entry ↗

num

The second numeral symbol of the English alphabet, called bee and written in the Latin script.

character

The second letter of the English alphabet, called bee and written in the Latin script.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

From the Old English letter B, from 7th century replacement by Latin B of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᛒ (b, beorc).

Relationships mentioned by the source

These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.

Cognate mentionBla

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

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Source etymology 2

Original entry ↗

symbol

byte

noun

The quantity one billion (1,000,000,000), usually used to signify a sum of money. · The grade of pencil, “black”, that makes darker marks than grade HB but lighter marks than grade 2B; a pencil with soft lead. · Abbreviation of bishop. · The number of balls faced by a batsman.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

From abbreviations of various terms beginning with or containing the letter ‘B’. * (billion): abbreviation of billion * (cricket): abbreviation of balls * (bitch): abbreviation of bitch

This page abbreviates 5 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

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Source etymology 3

Original entry ↗

noun

A personality type describing people who are relaxed and easygoing and able to engage in leisure activities without worrying about work. · An academic grade, better than a C and worse than an A. · Signifies a second-tier or second class of a given commodity, group, or category, as in B-movie, B-list, etc. · The alternate or secondary part, such as the back side of a phonograph record. Contrasted with ‘A’, which is the primary part.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

From the use of the letter ‘B’ as an arbitrary label among other letter labels. * (personality type): from contrast with the letter ‘A’ and its corresponding personality type * (academic grade): from the position of the letter ‘B’ in the English alphabet

This page abbreviates 2 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

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Source etymology 4

Original entry ↗

name

A programming language from which C is derived.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

Possibly a contraction of BCPL (“Basic Combined Programming Language”), the name of a programming language from which B was derived. Dennis Ritchie (a coworker of B’s designer, Ken Thompson) speculated that B might be based on Bon (the name of an earlier, but unrelated, programming language that Thompson designed for use on Multics), itself either from Bonnie (the name of Thompson’s wife) or “(according to an encyclopedia quotation in its manual), after a religion whose rituals involve the murmuring of magic formulas”.

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

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Where this record stops

This page does not supply an independently verified sound-change sequence, first-use manuscript or complete family tree unless a cited analysis explicitly establishes one. Missing detail here is a limit of this record—not a claim that humanity knows nothing more.

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Contribute located evidence for B →

Source and snapshot

Imported from Wiktionary contributors; extracted by Tatu Ylonen / Wiktextract / Kaikki.org. Selected fields are reformatted and grouped; wording, source identity and etymology sections are retained. CC-BY-SA-4.0 applies to the imported source material.

Dump: 2026-10-01 · Extracted: 2026-10-30. These are snapshot dates, not the word’s first attestation or the page’s revision date.

Source entry and bibliography ↗Wiktionary revision history ↗Acquisition and rights ledger

Machine-source provenance

Source SHA-256: 5ff2c072f8099f2d2ce484bd6957bf179f046d2ad37bc36555edf8bb84cb5291
Import run: 73216b9a9b78ed3830994bf853103716f5a4dc57099e371e9f8fdc468facca26
Permanent entry ID: w-Qg