beta - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Ancient Greek alphabet

← alpha → gamma
Β β Ancient Greek: βῆτα
Wikipedia article on beta

Borrowed from Ancient Greek βῆτᾰ (bêtă). Doublet of beth.

beta (countable and uncountable, plural betas)

  1. The second letter of the Greek alphabet (Β, β), preceded by alpha (Α, α) and followed by gamma, (Γ, γ). In modern Greek it represents the voiced labiodental fricative sound of v found in the English words have and vase.
  2. (education, rare) An academic grade better than a gamma and worse than an alpha.
    • 1957, R. Avery, “This Week’s Competition”, in Time & Tide‎[2], volume 38, number 1, page 184:
      But let me tell you happy extroverts that only Vera Telfer and H. A. C. Evans got even an alpha minus; only T. E. Hendrie got a beta plus […]
    • 1964, Randolph Churchill, The Fight for the Tory Leadership: A Contemporary Chronicle‎[3], page 49:
      Mr Taylor would hardly give a beta minus to one of his history students […]
    • 1979, Angus MacVicar, Silver in My Sporran: Confessions of a Writing Man‎[4], page 76:
      The English class was for me delightful. My essays, still written under the influence of Kubla Khan, nearly always got a beta plus.
  3. (finance) Average sensitivity of a security's price to overall securities market prices.
    • 2001, Cheng-Few Lee, editor, Advances in Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management, volume 8, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 143:
      An inspection of the results indicate that Property Trusts is the lowest risk industry with a long-run beta of 0.4520 while Gold is the highest risk industry with a long-run beta of 1.5229.
  4. (computing, video games)
    1. (uncountable) The phase of development after alpha testing and before launch, in which software, while not complete, has been released to potential users for testing.
      The company is offering a public beta program to test the software.
    2. (countable) Software in such a phase; a preliminary version.
      • 2007, Michael Lopp, Managing Humans, page 107:
        He quickly deduced our goal—ship a quality beta—but he also quickly discerned that we had no idea about the quality of the product because of our pile of untriaged bugs.
      • 2007, Mark Summerfield, Rapid GUI Programming with Python and Qt: The Definitive Guide to PyQt Programming‎[5], Pearson Education, →ISBN:
        We will assume you got the .tgz version—later 2.x series versions such as 2.5.2 or 2.6.0 should be okay, provided they are production releases (not alphas, betas, or release candidates).
      • 2015 February 14, Steven Strom, “Evolve Review: Middle of the food chain”, in Ars Technica‎[6]:
        Before Evolve had even seen its first beta, the game's publisher dipped its toe into presenting it as an eSport.
      • 2020 July 9, Jacob Krol, “Here’s how to get the iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 public beta”, in CNN‎[7]:
        Apple is rolling out the public beta of iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 on Thursday. We have a full (and lengthy) preview guide on both operating systems here, and now we’re breaking down how to get the public beta on your iPhone or iPad.
        These versions of iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 are betas and don’t represent final software.
    3. (proscribed, uncountable) Any kind of content from early development that was not used in the final product.
      beta levels; beta characters; beta items in a video game
  5. (climbing) Information about a route which may aid someone in climbing it.
  6. (physics) A beta particle or beta ray.
  7. (aviation) Sideslip angle.
  8. (aviation) The range of engine power settings in which the blade pitch angle of a constant-speed propeller is controlled directly by the angle of the engine's throttle lever (rather than varying with engine torque and airspeed to maintain a constant propeller RPM), allowing the propeller to be disked to generate high drag and slow the aircraft quickly.
  9. Alternative spelling of betta (“fish in the genus _Betta_”).
  10. (slang, manosphere, masculism) Ellipsis of beta male, a man who is less competent or desirable than an alpha male.
  1. (fandom slang) In omegaverse fiction, a person of a secondary sex similar to normal humans, lacking the biological drives of alphas and omegas but generally capable of bonding and mating with either.

(unfinished software):

letter of the Greek alphabet

beta (not comparable)

  1. Identifying a molecular position in an organic chemical compound.
  2. Designates the second in an order of precedence.
  3. (computing) Preliminary; prerelease. Refers to an incomplete version of a product released for initial testing.
  4. (of a person, object or action) Associated with the beta male/female archetype.

beta

beta (third-person singular simple present betas, present participle betaing, simple past and past participle betaed)

  1. (computing) To preliminarily release computer software for initial testing prior to final release.
  2. (chiefly Internet) To beta-read a text.
    • 1999, sqira a., in alt.tv.x-files.creative [10]
      My thanks to Heather; who read it and betaed it. Thank you.
    • 2000, Elizabeth Durack, quoted in Angelina I. Karpovich, “The Audience as Editor: The Role of Beta Readers in Online Fan Fiction Communities” (essay), in Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse (editors), Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet, McFarland (2006), →ISBN, page 180,
      Beta’ing is time-consuming, so asking a lot of people to give you a detailed analysis isn’t the most polite thing to do.
    • 2002, Jane Davitt, in alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer.creative [11]
      The next part is written and beta'd (thanks, Jen!), ready to go but I haven't even started what should be the final part yet.
    • 2002, Karmen Ghia, in alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated [12]
      I had the honor of betaing this story and as I was doing the first read through I had the odd, but lovely, experience when a story suspends the reader in its own rhythm and flow, its own reality.

Prakrit बिट्ट (biṭṭa)

English beta

Borrowed from Hindi बेटा (beṭā).

beta (countable and uncountable, plural betas)

  1. (North India, Pakistan, colloquial, Hinglish) a term of endearment, used towards someone of equal or lower standing such as a friend or child, similar to brother or son
    Don't pick that up, beta, it's dirty.

From Classical Malay بيتا (beta, “I”).

beta

  1. I first-person singular pronoun

Ambonese Malay personal pronouns

| | singular | plural | | | | ----------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | 1st person | long | beta | katóng, batóng1 | | short | bet | tong | | | 2nd person | long | ose, ale | dorang, ngoni | | short | os, se, al | dong, ngo | | | 3rd person | long | dia, ontua2, akang2 | dorang | | short | ontó2, kang2 | dong | | | possessive | pe | | | | reflexive | diri | | | | emphatic | sandiri | | |

1 Used with inclusive meaning in some dialects.
2 Polite.

See each entry for more information.

From Ancient Greek βῆτα (bêta).

beta f (plural betes)

  1. beta (Greek letter)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek βῆτα (bêta).

beta f (plural betes)

  1. beta; the Greek letter Β (lowercase β)

Borrowed from Occitan beta.

beta f (plural betes)

  1. boat; specifically a small, flat-bottom boat common to the coasts of Provence and Languedoc

Borrowed from Ancient Greek βῆτα (bêta).

beta n or f

  1. beta (Greek letter)

when feminine:

Indeclinable when neuter.

From Ancient Greek βῆτα (bêta), ultimately from Proto-Semitic *bayt- (“house”).

beta n (genitive singular **beta, plural betu)

  1. beta (Greek letter)

From Ancient Greek βῆτα (bêta).

beta m (plural betas)

  1. beta (Greek letter)

Guyanese Creole English

[edit]

beta

  1. alternative spelling of baytah (“son”)

beta f (genitive singular betu, nominative plural betur) or
beta n (genitive singular **beta, nominative plural betu)

  1. beta (Greek letter)

Inherited from Malay beta, possibly from Hindi बेटा (beṭā, “son”). Some linguists propose that this word is a native derivation due to the similarity in form with kita (“we (inclusive)”).

beta

  1. (dialectal) I, me, my
    Synonyms: aku, saya

The pronoun is obsolete in common use and limited in literature. It is also highly stereotypical of Maluku Islands (Moluccas) and East Nusa Tenggara.

From Ancient Greek βῆτα (bêta).

beta (plural **beta-beta)

  1. beta (second letter of the Greek alphabet)

bêta or beta

  1. abbreviation of benda terbang aneh (“unidentified flying object”)

From Latin bēta, from Ancient Greek βῆτα (bêta).

beta f (invariable)

  1. the name of the Greek script letter Β/β; beta
  2. (computing) beta (software version)

From Latin bēta (“beet”), from Celtic.

beta f (plural bete)

  1. alternative form of bieta; beet

beta

  1. comparative degree of gud: better

beta

  1. Rōmaji transcription of ベタ

Said by some sources to be of Celtic origin,[1][2][3] but no obvious Celtic cognates exist; Ernout and Meillet adduce an apparently apocryphal Irish biatuis as cognate.[1] Also compared are blitum (“spinach”), meta (“conic heap of stones”) (compared to the root's spindle form), and less likely, sense 2, with the seed vessel resembling the letter.

bēta f (genitive bētae); first declension

  1. A beet.

First-declension noun.

From Ancient Greek βῆτα (bêta).

bēta n (indeclinable)

  1. The Greek letter beta.

  2. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ernout, Alfred; Meillet, Antoine (1985), “bēta, -ae”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots‎[1] (in French), 4th edition, with additions and corrections of Jacques André, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001, page 69

  3. ^ James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Beta”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC.

  4. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “beet”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

beta (Jawi spelling بيتا)

  1. (Palace Malay) I, me, my (exclusive use in royalty, subject is either king or queen)
    Synonyms: aku (informal), saya (polite), patik (used when talking to king/queen)

Malay personal pronouns

| | Singular | Plural | | | ----------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | 1st person | saya1 aku3 | kita4 kami2 & 5 kita orang3 & 5 | | 2nd person | awak1 anda2 awda8 (eng)kau3 kamu3 | (2nd person) + semua6 kalian2 (eng)kau orang3 | | 3rd person | dia ia beliau7 -nya2 | mereka2 dia orang3 |

1 Polite.
2 Formal.
3 Informal.
4 Includes the listener (inclusive).
5 Excludes the listener (exclusive).
6 Formality depends on the second person pronoun used.
7 Honorific.
8 Formal (Brunei).

Notes:

See each entry for more information.

Borrowed from English beta.

beta (Jawi spelling بيتا, plural **beta-beta or **beta2)

  1. beta (second letter of the Greek alphabet)

From English better.

beta

  1. good; better
    • 2024 January 11, Tamara Ebiwei, “'Dem tiff my pikin three hours afta I born am for hospital'”, in BBC News Pidgin‎[15]:
      Dis hospital na one of di biggest hospitals for Lafia, wey get beta security. But one unknown woman allegedly tiff Mrs Wosilat Suleiman pikin.
      This hospital is one of the largest hospitals in Lafia, with good security. However, an unknown woman allegedly stole Mrs. Wosilat Suleiman's child.

beta

  1. third-person plural present subjunctive relative of is
    • c. 845, St Gall Glosses on Priscian, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1975, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. II, pp. 49–224, Sg. 207b11
      Cit comṡuidigthi la Grécu ní écen dúnni beta comṡuidigthi linn.
      Although they are compounds in Greek (lit. “with the Greeks”), it is not necessary for us that they be compounds in our language (lit. “with us”).

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek βῆτα (bêta), from Phoenician 𐤁 (b‬ /⁠bēt⁠/).

beta f

  1. beta (Greek letter Β, β)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

beta m inan

  1. genitive/accusative singular of bet

Borrowed from Latin beta, from Ancient Greek βῆτα (bêta).

beta f (plural betas)

  1. beta (all senses)

beta f (plural betas)

  1. beet (plant)

beta

  1. inflection of betar:
    1. third-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative

Borrowed from French bêta.

beta m (plural **beta)

  1. beta (Greek letter)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek βῆτα (bêta).

bȅta f (Cyrillic spelling бе̏та)

  1. beta, the Greek letter, Β, β

Borrowed from Ancient Greek βῆτα (bêta).

beta f (genitive singular bety, nominative plural bety, genitive plural biet, declension pattern of žena) OR
beta n

  1. beta (Greek letter)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek βῆτα (bêta) ultimately from Proto-Semitic *bayt- (“house”).

beta f (plural betas)

  1. beta; the Greek letter Β, β

Latin bēta, from Ancient Greek βῆτα (bêta).

beta n or c

  1. beta; the Greek letter Β, β
  2. (computing) a beta version of a program
  3. (slang) short for minnesbeta

beta (present betar, preterite betade, supine betat, imperative **beta)

  1. to test software prior to release

Ultimately from Latin bēta (“beet”).

beta c

  1. beetroot

bete +‎ -a

en betande åsna [a grazing donkey]

beta (present betar, preterite betade, supine betat, imperative **beta)

  1. to graze; to eat grass; to feed on growing herbage.

Clipping of betaga; be- +‎ ta. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

beta (present betar, preterite betog, supine betagit, imperative **beta)

  1. to steal