A dialectal or archaic past tense form, possibly of 'bide' (to stay or remain), though the exact definition is unclear.
Possibly related to Old English 'bidan' (to wait, stay, remain) or Scottish dialect. The exact etymology is uncertain due to the word's obscurity.
English has so many dead or dying dialect words that linguists use them like archaeologists use pottery shards—each one tells us how people in specific regions spoke centuries ago.
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