† beˈsaiel, besaile Obs. exc. Law.
Forms: 4–5 beayell, 5 bysayeul, -sale, 6 besayle, 6–7 besaile, 7 besayel, (8 besail, 9 besael).
[a. OF. besayel, besaiol (mod.F. bisaieul), f. bes:—L. bis twice + ayel, aiol, aieul grandfather (see aiel). The earlier Eng. form was beayel from AFr.]
A grandfather's father, a great-grandfather.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 13474 His beayell aboue on þe burne syde, On his modur halfe. 1480 Caxton Ovid's Met. xiii. ii, Jupiter, the god of goddes, is my bysayeul. 1586 J. Ferne Blaz. Gentrie 102 There is Besaile, Graundsire, father. [1762 Ruffhead Act 32 Hen. VIII, ii. §2 note, The Tresail, that is, the Father of the Besail, or Great Grandfather.] |
b. Law. writ of besaile (see quot.).
| 1598 Kitchin Courts Leet (1675) 424 In a Writ of Besayle he shall not have the View. 1641 Termes de la Ley 40 Besaile is a writ that lies for the heire, where his great grandfather was seised the day that he died, or died seised of Land in fee-simple, & a stranger enters the day of the death of the great grandfather, or abates after his death, the heire shall have this writ against such a disseisor or abator. [1865 Nichols Britton II. 59 Such kindred..shall have their remedy by our writs of Cosinage, of Ael, Aele, Besael, and Besaele.] |