Beget

'To beget' is a verb that is not much used nowadays - but you will still find it in the Authorised Version and other Early Modern English texts, and in contexts where authors are trying to be solemn, formal and (or or) religious. It means 'to father' (rarely used as 'to mother': a common construction is "[the father] begot the child on [the body of] [the mother]"). Figuratively, the meaning has developed to 'originating [an idea, etc] that then comes to fruition in more complex ways: "Tim Berners-Lee begot the internet." This idea is commonly expressed these days as "He was the only [or onlie] begetter of the internet." (The phrase, like its unorthodox spelling, comes from the dedication of Shakespeare's Sonnets:

TO.THE.ONLIE.BEGETTER.OF.

THESE.INSVING.SONNETS.

Mr.W.H.

The phrase 'only begetter', even in its weightier, more academic spelling of 'onlie begetter' is now something of a cliché. Don't use it.

'To beget' is an irregular verb. Its forms are given here:

Base form	past tense	-ed participle	Remarks
beget	begot	begotten	cf. Get (irregular verb) In the Authorised Version, the past tense can also be begat

This is one of the "the 250 or so irregular verbs" listed in Quirk 1985. The list "contains most of the irregular verbs in present-day English ... but is not meant to be exhaustive, particularly with regard to derivative verbs." AWE has copied most of the entries in that list. The verb 'to beget' belongs to Quirk's Class 4 A c.

'To beget' is derived from Get (irregular verb), but has retained the older form of the past participle which 'to get' has lost in British English - although American English still retains it for some meanings. Cf. forget. You may also want to see an etymological note about the origins of this word at be-.