Source etymology 1 · variant 1/2
Original entry ↗In a loud manner. · In a boasting manner. · In a large amount or to a large extent. · (modifying a preposition)
Someone or something that is large in stature. · An important or powerful person; a celebrity; a big name. · The big leagues, big time. · An initiated member of a sorority or fraternity who acts as a mentor to a new member (the little).
Inherited from Northern Middle English big, bigge (“powerful, strong”), possibly from a dialect of Old Norse. Ultimately perhaps a derivative of Proto-Germanic *bugja- (“swollen up, thick”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-, *bu- (“to swell”), in which case big would be related to bogey, bugbear, and bug. Compare dialectal Norwegian bugge (“great man”), Low German Bögge, Boggelmann.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
This page abbreviates 3 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.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "yesno",
"args": {
"1": "",
"2": "i",
"3": "I"
},
"expansion": "I"
},
{
"name": "glossary",
"args": {
"1": "Inherited"
},
"expansion": "Inherited"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm-nor",
"3": "big",
"4": "",
"5": "",
"lit": "",
"pos": "",
"tr": "",
"ts": "",
"id": "",
"sc": "",
"g": "",
"g2": "",
"g3": "",
"nocat": "",
"sort": ""
},
"expansion": "Northern Middle English big"
},
{
"name": "inh+",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm-nor",
"3": "big"
},
"expansion": "Inherited from Northern Middle English big"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "non",
"3": "-"
},
"expansion": "Old Norse"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gem-pro",
"3": "*bugja-",
"4": "",
"5": "swollen up, thick"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Germanic *bugja- (“swollen up, thick”)"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*bʰew-"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "no",
"2": "bugge",
"t": "great man"
},
"expansion": "Norwegian bugge (“great man”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "nds",
"2": "Bögge"
},
"expansion": "Low German Bögge"
}
],
"links": [
[
"big",
"big#Middle_English"
],
[
"bigge",
"bigge#Middle_English"
],
[
"*bugja-",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/bugja-"
],
[
"*bʰew-",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/bʰew-"
],
[
"*bu-",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/bu-"
],
[
"bogey",
"bogey#Etymology_1"
],
[
"bugbear",
"bugbear#English"
],
[
"bug",
"bug#English"
],
[
"bugge",
"bugge#Norwegian"
],
[
"Bögge",
"Bögge#Low_German"
],
[
"Boggelmann",
"Boggelmann#Low_German"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "adv",
"glosses": [
"In a loud manner.",
"In a boasting manner.",
"In a large amount or to a large extent.",
"(modifying a preposition)"
],
"tags": [
"informal"
],
"recordId": "25057f2b29d4f3076b529775b33e57407405e5ee88a00415d96ca576946beea8",
"rawRecordSha256": "3a37163006140e92840c6698fbe52c620d1562cfa1c5613ac2dff9896b3c1926",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 7635
},
{
"pos": "noun",
"glosses": [
"Someone or something that is large in stature.",
"An important or powerful person; a celebrity; a big name.",
"The big leagues, big time.",
"An initiated member of a sorority or fraternity who acts as a mentor to a new member (the little)."
],
"tags": [
"in-plural"
],
"recordId": "ec1b5e628e9facea55e1de4764513ccbba075396e7892533a50207d4e0563943",
"rawRecordSha256": "31d840d53f968e220bfe80e51ee96a1ceb2534a85853ba9444f31cb7999a85a4",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 7636
}
],
"omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
"templates": 0,
"links": 0,
"references": 0,
"descendants": 0,
"lexicalRecords": 0,
"lexicalSenses": 3,
"glosses": 0
}
}