Etymology: < Old French bes- < classical Latin bis ‘twice, at two times, in two ways, doubly’ (see bis- comb. form1); in Romance, also, with the sense of ‘secondarily, in an inferior way’; whence, with pejorative force, ‘improperly, unsymmetrically, not right or straight, awry, aslant.’
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1887; most recently modified version published online June 2020).