Other forms: bywords
A byword is a name that stands in everyone's mind for a particular quality. A byword for delay, become a byword, a byword for luxury.
It takes for, so a place or a firm becomes a byword for the thing it is famous for, good or bad. The older meaning was simply a proverb, which is what the Old English word meant.
1nounbywordA name that stands for a quality in everyone's mind.
“The town became a byword for rain.”
byword is a name.
Old English biword meant a proverb or a household word, from bi, by, plus word.
Proto-West Germanic
*bīwurdī
Old English
bīword
Middle English
byword
English, today
byword
Built from
From Middle English byword, byworde (“proverb”), from Old English bīword, bīwyrd, bīwyrde (“proverb, household word", also "adverb”), from Proto-West Germanic bīwurdī, equivalent to by + word. Compare Latin proverbium, which byword may possibly be a translation of. Cognate with Old High German pīwurti (“proverb”). Compare also Old English bīspel (“proverb, example”), bīcwide (“byword, proverb, tale, fable”), Dutch bijwoord (“adverb”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA