Past tense of abide, meaning to obey or follow a rule, or to stay in a place.
From Old English 'abidan' meaning 'to remain, await, or endure.' The word combines 'a-' + 'bide,' where 'bide' comes from Proto-Germanic 'bīdan' meaning 'to wait or remain.'
The phrase 'abide by' became especially famous from the Coen Brothers' 'The Big Lebowski,' where it refers to following rules or accepting decisions—but the word is over 1,000 years old and originally just meant 'to wait'!
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