1200), hence "in passing by," used figuratively to introduce a tangential observation ("incidentally") by 1540s. This also is the sense of the second by in the phrase by the by (1610s).īy the way literally means "along the way" (c. Elliptical use for "secondary course" was in Old English (opposed to main, as in byway, also compare by-blow "illegitimate child," 1590s, Middle English loteby "a concubine," from obsolete lote "to lurk, lie hidden"). Originally an adverbial particle of place, which sense survives in place names ( Whitby, Grimsby, etc., also compare rudesby).
print) has 38 distinct definitions of it as a preposition. Old English be- (unstressed) or bi (stressed) "near, in, by, during, about," from Proto-Germanic *bi "around, about," in compounds often merely intensive (source also of Old Saxon and Old Frisian bi "by, near," Middle Dutch bie, Dutch bij, German bei "by, at, near," Gothic bi "about"), from PIE *bhi, reduced form of root *ambhi- "around."Īs an adverb by c.
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