Beaver

How to spell beaver

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce beaver

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does beaver mean?

1. nounA large semi-aquatic rodent with a broad flat tail, known for felling trees and building dams.
2. verbTo work hard and steadily at something, usually in the phrase 'beaver away'.

Beaver in a sentence

• noun

  The beaver used branches and mud to build a sturdy dam across the stream.

• verb

  She would beaver away at the spreadsheets long after everyone else had gone home.

• noun

  A beaver appears on the national emblem of Canada.

• verb

  The volunteers beaver tirelessly to sort the donations before the deadline.

Where does beaver come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Beaver descends from the Old English beofor (also spelled befor), the native name for the large, dam-building rodent. It traces back to a Proto-Germanic form bebruz, which is echoed in the Dutch bever and the German Biber, and ultimately to an ancient Indo-European root that meant 'brown'; the animal was, quite simply, named after the colour of its fur. That same 'brown' root also lies behind the word 'bear' in some reconstructions and behind 'brown' itself, so the beaver is, in a sense, 'the brown one'. The modern spelling settled with the 'ea' vowel pairing during Middle and Early Modern English, which is the only real trap, since the word sounds like a long 'ee'. From the seventeenth century onward the beaver loomed large in trade, its pelt prized for felt hats, and the colloquial verb 'to beaver away', meaning to work busily and steadily, grew from the animal's reputation for tireless construction.

How the word is built

• Single Germanic root (no prefix or suffix): beaver, from Old English beofor, the name of the animal