/bɪd/
[verb] To offer a price for something, especially at an auction, or to make an attempt to win or achieve something. It can also mean to say a greeting or farewell to someone, as in 'bid goodbye.'
'Bid' is actually two completely separate Old English words that merged into one — a linguistic car crash 1,000 years in the making.
The word 'bid' carries a hidden secret that most people never suspect: it is not one word but two entirely different Old English words that collided over centuries and fused into a single form. Understanding 'bid' means untangling one of the most fascinating cases of word-blending in the English language.
The first ancestor is the Old English verb 'biddan', meaning 'to ask, pray, or entreat.' This word came from the ancient Proto-Germanic root 'bidjaną', which was itself related to the Proto-Indo-European root 'bhedh-', carrying the sense of pressing or urging someone. From this same family came the Old High German 'bitten' (to ask or request) and the Gothic 'bidjan' (to pray). In early Old English, a person might 'biddan' God for mercy or 'biddan' a lord for a favour — the word carried a tone of humble request or prayer.
The second ancestor is the Old English verb 'beodan', meaning 'to offer, announce, or command.' This word traced back to a different Proto-Germanic root, 'beuđaną', and further to the Proto-Indo-European root 'bheudh-', relating to awareness and proclamation. This root gave us Old Norse 'bjóða' (to offer), Old High German 'biotan' (to offer), and eventually the English word 'forbid' — literally 'to command against.' Where 'biddan' meant asking, 'beodan' meant announcing or offering something outward to others.
As Old English evolved into Middle English, these two verbs — 'biddan' and 'beodan' — began to blur together. Their past tense forms were similar, their sounds drifted closer over generations, and speakers increasingly treated them as one word. By the 13th and 14th centuries, Middle English writers used 'bidden' and 'bid' interchangeably for meanings drawn from both original words. The sense of 'making an offer at a sale or auction' emerged naturally from the 'beodan' branch, as offering a price is a kind of public announcement. The phrase 'bid farewell' — saying goodbye — draws from the older 'biddan' sense of addressing or entreating someone.
The auction sense of 'bid' became especially prominent from the 17th century onward, as commerce and trade expanded in England and public sales of goods became common events in towns and ports. By this time, nobody consciously remembered that two separate words had merged. The noun form 'a bid' — an offer of a specific price — followed naturally and became firmly established in business and legal language. Later, the word broadened further to describe any attempt or effort to achieve something, as in 'a bid for power' or 'a bid for freedom,' carrying the original spirit of reaching outward toward a goal.
Today, 'bid' sits comfortably in everyday English, covering auctions, card games, tenders for contracts, and warm farewells — all without revealing its double identity. It is a small word with a surprisingly layered past, a quiet reminder that language is never as tidy as it appears on the surface.