Etymology: < bite v. Taking the place of bit n.¹, bit n.², in several of their original and more literal senses, first in 15th cent. in sense 1. (As bit n.¹ was earlier spelt bite, with short ĭ, it is not possible always to distinguish the two words, at the period when bīte was coming in.)

Etymology: Common Germanic: Old English bítan, past tense bát, biton, past participle biten = Old Saxon bitan (Middle Dutch bîten, Dutch bijten), Old Frisian bîta, Old Norse bíta (Swedish bita, Danish bide), Old High German bîȥan (Middle High German bîȥen, modern German beiszen). Gothic beitan, past tense bait, bitum, participle bitans < Germanic *bîtan, cognate with Sanskrit bhid-, Latin fid- (findere) ‘to cleave, split.’ Originally inflected like write; but since 16th cent. the regular past tense bote, still used in Lancashire, etc., has been superseded in standard English by the form bit, which (though it has the original vowel of the plural) is not a continuation of that form, but formed either after the past participle, or on the analogy of some other verbs of the same class.