Word of the Day

: April 21, 2009

besot

verb bih-SAHT

What It Means

1 : infatuate

2 : to make dull or stupid; especially : to muddle with drunkenness

besot in Context

Long besotted with the pretty file clerk who worked in his office, Keith finally worked up the nerve to ask her out to lunch.

Did You Know?

"Besot" developed from a combination of the prefix "be-" ("to cause to be") and "sot," a now-archaic verb meaning "to cause to appear foolish or stupid." "Sot" in turn comes from the Middle English noun "sott," meaning "fool." The first known use of "besot" is found in a poem by George Turberville, published in 1567. In the poem the narrator describes how he gazed at a beautiful stranger "till use of sense was fled." He then proceeds to compare himself to Aegisthus of Greek legend, the lover of Clytemnestra while Agamemnon was away at war, writing: "What forced the Fool to love / his beastly idle life / Was cause that he besotted was / of Agamemnon’s Wife."