Word Origin and History for bean
n.
Old English bean "bean, pea, legume," from Proto-Germanic *bauno (cf.Old Norse baun, Middle Dutch bone, Dutch boon, Old High German bona, German Bohne), perhaps from a PIE reduplicated base *bha-bha- andrelated to Latin faba "bean."
As a metaphor for "something of small value" it is attested from c.1300.Meaning "head" is U.S. baseball slang c.1905 (in bean-ball "a pitch thrownat the head"); thus slang verb bean meaning "to hit on the head," attestedfrom 1910.
The notion of lucky or magic beans in English folklore is from the exoticbeans or large seeds that wash up occasionally in Cornwall and westernScotland, carried from the Caribbean or South America by the GulfStream. They were cherished, believed to ward off the evil eye and aid inchildbirth.
Slang bean-counter "accountant" recorded by 1971. To not know beans(American English, 1933) is perhaps from the "of little worth" sense, butmay have a connection to colloquial expression recorded around Somerset,to know how many beans make five "be a clever fellow."
As a metaphor for "something of small value" it is attested from c.1300.Meaning "head" is U.S. baseball slang c.1905 (in bean-ball "a pitch thrownat the head"); thus slang verb bean meaning "to hit on the head," attestedfrom 1910.
The notion of lucky or magic beans in English folklore is from the exoticbeans or large seeds that wash up occasionally in Cornwall and westernScotland, carried from the Caribbean or South America by the GulfStream. They were cherished, believed to ward off the evil eye and aid inchildbirth.
Slang bean-counter "accountant" recorded by 1971. To not know beans(American English, 1933) is perhaps from the "of little worth" sense, butmay have a connection to colloquial expression recorded around Somerset,to know how many beans make five "be a clever fellow."
As a metaphor for "something of small value" it is attested from c.1300.Meaning
"head" is U.S. baseball slang c.1905 (in bean-ball "a pitch thrown at the head"); thus slang verb bean meaning "to hit on the head," attested from 1910.
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