to cover or coat something with singing or to sing excessively over something.
From Middle English be- (prefix meaning 'around' or 'thoroughly') + sing. The be- prefix was used in Old English to intensify or extend the meaning of verbs, similar to modern prefixes like over- or un-.
The be- prefix is a linguistic fossil! It was super productive in Old and Middle English (making words like besmear, belittle, befriend), but we rarely use it to make new words anymore—it's mostly stuck to old words that survived.
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