bizen
noun/ˈbaɪzən/
Etymology From Middle English bysen, partly from Old English bȳsen (“example, pattern, model, similitude, parable, parallel, rule, command, precept”), and partly from Old Norse býsn (“a wonder, a portentous thing”), both from Proto-Germanic *būsniz (“command, precept”), from Proto-Germanic *beudaną (“to ask, beg”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewdʰ- (“to be awake, perceive fully”).
1
Northern England, Scotland, UK, Dialectal, Obsolete, Rare Something monstrous or portentous; a shocking sight; sorry spectacle; disgraceful thing.
- She's a shem and a bizen to all the heale town.1823, Robert Anderson, Ballads in the Cumberland Dialect, page 155:
- […] and a bizen like this.1866, Eliza Lynn Linton, Lizzie Lorton of Greyrigg, page 97:
1 more example
- It'll be a sham an' a bizen, if we cannot find him a menseful of a dinner.c. 1874, E. Waugh, Jannock ii. 13, as quoted in The English Dialect Dictionary and in the quotation, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (1887), of J. H. Nodal and G. Milnar's Gloss[ary of the] Lancashire Dial[ect] (1875)
2
Northern England, Scotland, UK, Dialectal Something serving as a warning or an example to be avoided.