To gift or give to someone; to present with a gift or offering (archaic or dialectal).
From 'be-' (Old English prefix meaning 'to make' or 'to cause') + 'gift' (Old Norse 'gipt,' meaning 'giving' or 'gift'). Common in Early Modern English, now archaic.
The 'be-' prefix is a fossil in English—words like 'begift,' 'befriend,' and 'besmirch' show how speakers once used it productively to turn nouns into verbs, but most have faded away.
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