To cover or sprinkle with grain or granular particles; to make grainy in texture or appearance.
From Middle English be- (prefix meaning 'to cover' or 'to cause') + grain (from Old French and Latin granum meaning 'seed' or 'kernel'). The prefix be- was commonly used in Old English to create verbs expressing a process or state.
The 'be-' prefix is like a linguistic Swiss Army knife—Old English speakers used it to transform simple nouns into action verbs, and we see this pattern in hundreds of English words like befriend, besmirch, and bewilder. It's a creative word-building technique that's mostly disappeared from modern English.
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