Other forms: begs, begging, begged
To beg is to ask for something as if you were on your knees. A child begging to stay up, a man on the pavement with a paper cup, a dog up on its back legs waiting for a bit of sausage.
Two halves live in this word. One is asking strangers in the street for money or food: begging is the noun for the activity, a beggar is the person. The other is asking desperately for anything at all — you beg somebody TO do something, and you beg FOR mercy, for time, for one more chance. Note the double G in begged and begging. 'I beg your pardon' is a polite apology, and in a certain tone of voice it means you have taken offence; 'I beg to differ' is an old-fashioned, mild way of saying you disagree.
1verbstrangersTo ask strangers in the street for money or food.
“He begs outside the station every morning in the same spot.”
2verbbegTo ask desperately for something.
“She begged them to let her finish the sentence.”
3verbdogOf a dog: to sit up with its front paws raised, asking for food.
“The spaniel begs at the table and gets away with it.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Also accepted in games: plead
Nobody is certain where beg comes from. Middle English had beggen; one theory traces it to an Old English bedecian, to beg, which is itself unexplained, another ties it to the root behind bid, and a third says the verb was cut back out of the older noun beggar, borrowed from Old French begart. For a word this plain and this common, that is a remarkably foggy history.
Middle English
beggen
English, today
beg
Built from
From Middle English beggen. Middle English beggen, of uncertain origin. Possibly from Old English becgian, bedcian, syncopated forms of bedecian (“to beg”), itself of unknown origin. Possibly from Proto-West Germanic bedukōn, a frequentative verb derived from Proto-West Germanic bedu (“plea, petition, prayer”, whence bead). Alternatively from Proto-West Germanic bedagō (“petitioner, requester, beggar”), an agent noun from the same source. Compare frr bēdagi (“to pray”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍅𐌰 (“beggar”). All ultimately from the root of bid, which see for more. An alternative theory considers the verb a backformation from beggar and derives the latter from Old French begart* (“kind of lay brother”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA