bith

I

the world, existence, Irish, Old Irish bith, Welsh byd, Breton bed, Gaulish bitu-, *bitu-s; root bi, bei, live, Indo-European $$gei, $$gi, whence Latin vivo, English be, etc. Hence beatha, beò, biadh, q.v.

II

being (inf. of bì, be), Irish, Early Irish beith, Old Irish buith. The Old Irish is from the root bhu (English be, Latin fui) = *buti-s, Greek $$Gfúsis. The forms bith and beith, if derived from bhu, have been influenced by bith, world, existence; but it is possible that they are of the same root $$gi as bith. Stokes, in his treatise on the Neo-Celtic Verb Substantive, takes bith and beith from the root ga, go, Greek básis (English base), a root to which he still refers the Old Irish aorist bá, fui (see bu).