B
(biː)
I. 1. The second letter of the Roman alphabet, ancient and modern, corresponding, in position and power, to the Greek Beta, and Phœnician and Hebrew Beth, whence also its form is derived; representing the sonant labial mute, or lip-voice stop consonant. The plural has been written Bees, B's, Bs.
| c 1000 ælfric Gram. iii. (Zup. 6) Þá óðre niᵹon consonantes synd ᵹecwedene mvtae, þæt synd dumbe. h{iacu} ne synd ná mid ealle dumbe, ac h{iacu} habbað lytle clypunge..þás ongynnað of him sylfum and ᵹeendjað on þám clypjendl{iacu}cum stafum. b, c, d, g, p, t ᵹeendjað on e. c 1375 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. 1871 II. 239 Þis eire lernede first his a, bi, ce. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 42 Beauteous as Incke..Faire as a text B. in a Coppie booke. 1610 Chester's Tri. (1844) Addr. 23 The chiefest part of this people-pleasing spectacle, consisted in three Bees, viz. Boyes, Beasts, and Bels. 1682 Bunyan Holy War Advt., Witness my name, if Anagram'd to thee, The letters make, Nu hony in a B. 1878 Daily News 8 July 5/2 He pronounces his P's like B's. |
2. Phrases relating to the letter.
not to know a B from a bull's foot,
not to know a B from a battle-dore: to be entirely illiterate.
| 1401 Pol. Poems II. 57, I know not an A from the wyndmylne, ne a B from a bole foot. 1609 Dekker Guls Horne-Bk. 3 You shall not neede to buy bookes, no, scorne to distinguish a B from a battle dore. 1660 Howell Eng. Prov. 16 He knoweth not a B. from a battle-door. 1846 Brackenridge Mod. Chivalry 43 There were members who scarcely knew B from a bulls-foot. |
II. Used, like the other letters of the alphabet (see A,
the letter), to indicate serial order, with the value of
second, as quire B, the second ‘quire’ or sheet of a book, ‘Horse Artillery, B Brigade, B and C Batteries, Woolwich;’ (b.,
b.) the left-hand page or
verso of a leaf, the second column of a page. The following uses are more special:
1. In
Music: In England the 7th note of the scale of C major, which is called H in Germany, where B means the English B flat. B was the first note modified by a semitone in the musical scale, whence the signs ♭, originally a
b with round bottom (
= B♭,
Fr. B rond), and ♮, originally a {blb} with square bottom (
= B♮,
Fr. B carré), which since
c1620 have been applied as indicating ‘flat’ and ‘natural’ to all notes of the scale. A piece of music ‘in B’ has as its main scale that beginning with B.
| [c 1450 Burlesque in Rel. Ant. I. 83 Every clarke..seythe that a-re gothe before be-my.] 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 3 Every keye hath but one cleife except b fa, b mi. 1731 Swift Apollo Wks. 1755 IV. i. 161 For he could reach to B in alt. 1873 A. Coleridge Moscheles I. 271 Mendelssohn..played his charming Capriccio in B minor. 1879 Curwen Mus. Theory 73 The fourth [note] in the key of F is B flat. |
2. a. In
abstract reasoning,
hypothetical argumentation,
law, etc., B is put for a second or another person or thing. (
Cf. A II. 4.)
b. In various specific applications, as (
i) a blood-group (see
quots.); (
ii) a second-class road; (
iii) a supporting film to the main feature in a cinema programme; (
iv)
B Special: in Northern Ireland (until 1970), a member of the Ulster Special Constabulary, retained on a part-time basis (see
quot. 1985); a special constable; (
v) a range of international standard paper sizes (as
B1,
B2, etc.): see
A II. 9; (
vi) (the music recorded on) the supporting or less important side of a single-playing gramophone record, as
B-side;
cf. flip side s.v. flip n.2 7;
contr. with
A-side s.v. A II. 10.
| 1797 Tomlins Law Dict. s.v. Agreement, If a bond or note be given by A., the more effectually to enable B. to bring about a match, etc. 1870 Bowen Logic 207 The two categorical formulas A is B, or A is not B. 1879 Browning Dram. Lyrics Wks. III. 92 A.'s book shall prop you up, B.'s shall cover you. |
| [1910 W. L. Moss tr. Landsteiner in Johns Hopkins Hosp. Bull. XXI. 65/2 In a number of cases (Group A) the serum agglutinates the corpuscles of another Group (B), not, however, those of Group A.] 1921 Brit. Jrnl. Exper. Path. II. 33 The Landsteiner theory that two substances, ‘A’ and ‘B’, with their corresponding agglutinins, ‘a’ and ‘b’, are concerned in the isoagglutination of human bloods has been confirmed by absorption tests. 1927, 1928 [see A II. 7]. 1948 New Biol. V. 69 Human beings are classified into the four categories A, B, AB or O according as to whether certain A and B substances can be detected in their red blood cells (and incidentally in other tissues). |
| 1921 Autocar 29 Oct. 829/2 It is not..intended to deal with the numbering of the B roads until that of the A roads has been completed. 1962 Guardian 14 July 5/2 The B road..climbs up the Cotswolds from Stroud to Birdlip. 1967 M. Culpan In Deadly Vein iii. 41 A country lane of the twenties had now been widened into a B-road between A.5 and A.6. |
| 1949 Here & Now (N.Z.) Oct. 29/2 There is a current reaction against the ‘big’ picture; and it is a sign of the times that the Academy, one of London's repertory cinemas, has been showing two American ‘B’ features. 1962 Observer 20 May 27/6 Just that something which distinguishes the good documentary from the drab British B picture. 1967 Listener 7 Sept. 316/2 Things are looking up on ITV, except on farmer-and-B-film-haunted Southern. |
| 1922 in M. Gilbert Winston S. Churchill (1977) IV. Compan. III. 1948 In addition there were the ‘B’ Specials, numbering about 20,000. 1932 Tablet 15 Oct. 500/1 The ‘B’ Specials—a force of civilians enrolled as special constables. 1985 Biggs-Davison & Chowdharay-Best Cross of St Patrick 443 The ‘A’ Specials were a full-time and paid force; the ‘B’ Specials an occasional force with an allowance; and the ‘C’ Specials were unpaid. 1986 N.Y. Times 22 Jan. a2/4 When the [Ulster Defence] regiment was created 16 years ago to replace the B-Specials, an auxiliary police force often accused of mistreating Catholics, some Protestants reacted with two riots. |
| 1937 E. J. Labarre Dict. Paper 276/2 The B series is the first and the C and D series the second and third geometrical intermediate forms of the A series. 1962 [see A II. 9]. 1982 Electronics 11 Aug. 5e/1 A 5-by-7 dot-matrix impact printer that accepts B5-sized paper. 1985 Computerworld Focus 20 Nov. 24/3 The printer uses..European sizes A4 and B5. |
| 1962 Melody Maker 7 July 10/1 ‘Miracles sometimes happen’..now turns up as the B side for Michael London's vocal disc of Acker Bilk's ‘Stranger on the Shore’. 1970 J. Lennon in J. Wenner Lennon Remembers (1971) 106 That was the B-side of ‘Hello, Goodbye’. 1984 Sounds 1 Dec. 24/6, I was amazed that ‘Little Tickets’ was relegated to a B-side and won't even appear on the LP. |
3. In
Algebra:
b. (see
A II. 5.)
III. Abbreviations.
1. B. (in
Academical degrees), Bachelor, or its Latin equivalent
baccalaureus, as
LL.B. (
Legum Baccalaureus) Bachelor of Laws;
M.B. Bachelor of Medicine;
B. (
Music), Bass, Basso;
B,
BB,
BBB, black, double-, treble-black (of pencil lead);
b.,
b., born;
B. (
Chem.), Boron;
b Particle Physics, bottom;
b. (formerly also
B),
Cricket, bowled by;
B. (
b.)
Cricket, ‘Byes’;
B, breathalyser; so
B-test;
b,
B, bugger (or bastard) (as a euphemism, sometimes printed b―);
B.A. (or
A.B.), Bachelor of Arts;
B.A.B.S. Aeronaut., beam (or blind) approach beacon system, a system for approaching a landing field by means of instruments;
B.A.L., British Anti-Lewisite, a drug (dimercaprol) developed as an antidote to Lewisite and used also to neutralize metallic poisons,
e.g. arsenic;
B. and S., brandy and soda;
B.A.O.R., British Army of the Rhine;
B.B.C. (see as separate entry);
B.C., Before Christ;
B.C., Bad character; a mark formerly set on a soldier on his expulsion from his regiment for gross misconduct;
B.C.E., Before the Common Era;
B.C.-G.,
B.C.G., Bacillus Calmette-Guérin, used as an anti-tuberculosis vaccine; also
attrib.;
B.C.L., Bachelor of Civil Law;
B.D., Bachelor of Divinity;
B.D.S.T., British Double Summer Time;
B.E.F., British Expeditionary Force;
B.E.M., British Empire Medal;
B.E.M., bug-eyed monster;
BeV.,
B.E.V.,
bev,
U.S. (
billion electron
volts): a thousand million (10
9) electron volts;
B.F., bloody fool;
B.H.C., benzene hexachloride;
b.h.p., brake horse power;
B.L., Bachelor of Law, also (
Fr.)
Bachelier-ès-lettres;
B.Lit(t)., Bachelor of Literature, Bachelor of Letters;
B.M., British Museum;
B.M.A., British Medical Association;
BMX (see as main entry);
B.O., body odour;
B.O.P., Boy's Own Paper;
B.P., (
a) British Public,
esp. in
G.B.P., (
b) British Pharmacopœia: the title of a list of medicines and other preparations published under the direction of the General Medical Council; (
c) before present,
i.e., counting backwards from a.d. 1800;
B.Phil., (less commonly)
B.Ph., Bachelor of Philosophy;
B.R., British Rail (formerly Railways);
B.S., Bachelor of Surgery;
B.S., (
slang, chiefly
N. Amer.), bullshit;
B.Sc., Bachelor of Science;
B.S.(S.), British Standard (Specification);
B.S.I., British Standards Institution;
B.S.T., British Summer Time; (from 1968) British Standard Time;
B.T.M.,
b.t.m. colloq., bottom, posterior;
B.T.U., Board of Trade unit;
B.T.U.,
B.Th.U., British thermal unit;
B.U., bread unit: a ration token exchangeable for bread, cakes, etc.;
B.V. (
Beata Virgo), The Blessed Virgin.
B.V.D. (see as main entry);
BYO U.S. and
Austral., ‘bring your own’, designating a party, restaurant, etc. where food is provided but one takes one's own drink; also
BYOB U.S., ‘bring your own beer (booze, bottle, etc.)’. See also
B-girl.
| 1853 C. H. Weigall Art of Drawing Advts., p. 14 *B, Black (for Shading, or free Sketching). *BB, Softer ditto (for deep Shading). *BBB, Intensely Black (for extra deep Shading). 1886 C. M. Yonge Chantry House I. vii. 63 We had filled whole drawing-books with..foliage in BBB marking pencil. 1931 Boys' Mag. XLV. 190/1 A ‘B’ pencil. |
| 1945 Amer. Speech XX. 309 *BABS. Blind Approach Beacon System. System for approaching landing field by radar means. 1951 Gloss. Aeronaut. Terms (B.S.I.) iii. 28 Beam-approach beacon system, abbr. BABS. |
| 1978 Nature 2 Feb. 407/1 This new quark pair is labelled t and *b for ‘top’ and ‘bottom’. 1983 Sci. Amer. July 105/3 The lifetime of the b is predicted to be between 10-13 and 10-14 second. 1983 McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 1984 284/2 The discovery of the first b-flavored particle..proves the existence of the b quark. |
| 1744 in Nyren Yng. Cricketer's Tutor (1833) 111 Harris o, *B by Hadswell. 1822 in J. Pycroft Cricket Field (ed. 6, 1873) xiii. 292 Holloway, b. Beauclerk o. 1968 Times 15 Mar. 15/1 S. Comacho c. Knott, b. Brown..87. |
| 1967 Daily Tel. 21 Oct. 20/8 (heading) *B-test driver fined. |
| 1851 Mayhew Lond. Lab. I. 313/1 The poor *b— is in ‘stir’ (prison). 1925 D. H. Lawrence Let. 17 Nov. (1962) 865 I'd have sent those Irish b's seven times to hell, before I'd have moved a single iota at their pencil stroke. 1952 N. Streatfeild Aunt Clara 14 Can't 'elp bein' sorry for the poor old B. Ibid. 161 ‘Poor little B's,’ he thought. |
| 1942 PB 5545: Office of Sci. Res. & Devel., National Defense Res. Comm. (E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co.) (title of mimeographed report) Report on the experimental manufacture and process study of *BAL. 1943 Hospital Corps Q. (Washington, D.C.) XVI. 140 Persons required to enter areas specifically known to be contaminated with lewisite should apply BAL ointment sparingly to unprotected parts of the body. 1944 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 22 July 111/1 Recently B.A.L. ointment, which is a specific for arsenical vesicants and of great value in the treatment of the eyes, has been developed. 1964 S. Duke-Elder Parsons' Dis. Eye (ed. 14) xxvi. 379 Arsenical vesicants are neutralized by the local application of BAL ointment. |
| a 1878 G. J. Whyte-Melville Black but Comely (1879) II. xxvii. 112 Now for a *B-and-S, one quiet cigar, and then bed. 1882 Punch 11 Feb. 69/1 He'll nothing drink but ‘B. & S.’ and big magnums of ‘the Boy’. |
| 1945 War Illustr. 9 Nov. 421 (caption) A *B.A.O.R. major examined the papers of Wehrmacht youths about to be demobilized at Staaken, near Berlin. |
| 1881 K. Magnus About Jews i. 1 A glance at the Babylonian captivity (587–536 *b.c.e.). 1915 M. Radin Jews among Greeks & Romans 15 The period..from the end of the Babylonian Captivity to the establishment of Christianity—roughly from about 450 b.c.e. to 350 c.e. |
| 1926 Lancet 29 May 1030/1 It is this attenuated bacillus *B.C.-G., or Bacillus Calmette-Guérin that he uses for his vaccinations of both calves and newborn infants. 1958 Sunday Times 23 Feb. 19/4 B.C.G. inoculation against tuberculosis. |
| 1943 Daily Tel. 24 June 1/7 At 1.20 this morning (2.20 *B.D.S.T.) the state of the parties was [etc.]. |
| 1917 W. Owen Let. 9 Jan. (1967) 425 Please send the compass: 2 Manchester Regt. *B.E.F. 1939 War Illustr. 7 Oct. 110/1 The men of the new B.E.F. have gone to the front with smiling faces. |
| 1941 Ibid. 9 May 476/2 Mr. T. H. Newton, Home Guard, *B.E.M., for securing a mine and rendering it safe. |
| 1948 Electronic Engin. XX. 149 The bevatron (from *B.E.V.—billion electron volts). 1964 Sci. Amer. July 44/3 The six-billion-electron-volt (6-bev) electron synchrotron in Cambridge, Mass. |
| 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 12 *B.F... Ordinary contemptuous slang: e.g., ‘He's an out and out B.F.!’ 1939 C. Day Lewis Child of Misfortune ii. i. 137 You really are a B.F., Arthur. |
| 1947 Ann. Appl. Biol. XXXIV. 347 The material used..was crude benzene hexachloride (*B.H.C.). |
| 1895 Oxf. Univ. Calendar 1896 72 *B.Litt. or B.Sc. 1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl., B.Lit. 1937 Discovery Jan. ii/1 Geraldine Coster, B.Litt. (Oxon.). |
| 1870 Geo. Eliot Let. 14 Sept. (1956) V. 116, I dare not expect to be in time for any address but the *B[ritish] M[useum]. 1954 Grove's Dict. Mus. III. 168/2 An Indian bas-relief..dominated the grand staircase at the B.M. |
| 1886 Dict. Abbrevs. 14 *B.M.A., British Medical Association. 1955 Times 2 June 3/6 The annual meeting of the British Medical Association, which opened yesterday at B.M.A. House. |
| 1933 Sat. Even. Post 14 Jan. 91/3 Those ‘*B.O.’ ads. I laughed at—is the joke on me? 1936 Auden & Isherwood Ascent of F6 ii. iii. 96 And some I know have got B.O.: But these are not for me. |
| 1909 R. Brooke Let. 4 Sept. (1968) 176 Reading the *B.O.P. 1932 Dylan Thomas Let. Dec. (1966) 8, I..contribute..funny verses to the B.O.P. 1939 ‘G. Orwell’ Coming up for Air ii. ii. 58 Myself under the table with the B.O.P., making believe that the table-cloth is a tent. |
| 1896 Ellen Terry Let. 26 Nov. in E. Terry & Bernard Shaw (1931) 129, I should say it would be a tremendous go with the *B.P. 1963 ‘A. Gilbert’ Ring for Noose vi. 76 The dear B.P. doesn't worry its head much about proof. |
| 1898 Lancet 6 Aug. 337/2 We hold it to be incumbent upon every medical man..to write..upon his recipes either the words *B.P. 1898 or B.P. 1885 after each preparation. 1966 D. Francis Flying Finish vi. 69 A printed chemist's label on the front said ‘Two hundred aspirin tablets B.P.’ |
| 1946 F. E. Zeuner Dating Past v. 142 Going backwards into the past, the radiation curve for the last 600,000 years..shows a series of three summer minima between 25,000 and 115,000 years *B.P. |
| 1923 F. W. Haycraft Degrees & Hoods World's Universities & Colleges 1 *B.Ph., Bachelor of Philosophy. 1942 Partridge Dict. Abbrevs. 19/2 B.Phil., Bachelor of Philosophy. 1966 Rep. Comm. Inquiry Univ. Oxf. II. 22 The B.Phil. can be taken in a number of arts and social studies subjects. |
| 1949 Railway Gaz. Jan. (Index Suppl.) p. v/1 (heading) *B.R. Eastern Region. 1958 Spectator 13 June 772/1 The stock BR argument against sleepers is that they are wasteful of accommodation. 1986 Bookseller 25 Jan. 428/2 An eminently practical..book, really to help you get the most out of BR and Godfrey Davis Europcar. |
| [1884 S. F. Peckham Rep. on Petroleum viii. 95 The oil is subject to depreciation in value from evaporation and by leakage through the roof of the tank, by which it is converted into an emulsion locally known as ‘B.S.’] 1912 J. Sandilands Western Canad. Dict. & Phrase-Bk., *B.S., the initials of a very vulgar but common ejaculation, describing a story as lies and nonsense. 1965 G. Jennings Personalities of Lang. 138 At one time, oilfield workers vulgarly referred to the sludge that befouls..oil tanks as ‘bullshit’. This was gradually abbreviated to ‘B.S.’, which the industry's trade journals primly translated into ‘basic sediment’. 1969 I. Black in A. Chapman New Black Voices (1972) 372 If we stuck by our women Cooled the b.s. in barbershops..If we kept our neighborhoods clean and peaceful..Think it would make a difference? 1975 J. Goulet Human Ape (1977) xx. 123 Shit,..you can't be around a project like this for two years without picking up some of that B.S. |
| 1932 Brit. Standards Inst. Handbk. 45 List of *B.S. Specifications. Ibid. 61 Subject Index to B.S. Specifications..B.S.S. No. Ibid. 1 Aims and Objects of the *B.S.I. |
| 1930 Meteorol. Gloss. (ed. 2) 36 British Summer Time (*B.S.T.)..9 h. G.M.T. is the same as 10 h. B.S.T. 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 22 Mar. 72/1 (headline) Scots F.U. Oppose B.S.T. Change. 1968 Guardian 17 Feb. 16/6 Sunrise times under BST. |
| 1919 R. Firbank Valmouth xi. 188 She made a sudden dash for my *b-t-m. 1934 S. Beckett More Pricks than Kicks 52 The weary proletarians at rest on B.T.M. and elbow. |
| 1946 Lancet 20 July 97/2 Each bread unit is equivalent to 7 oz. of bread, 51/3 oz. of flour, or 8 oz. of flour confectionery, so the scales of *B.U. per week can be read as scales of bread in ounces per day. |
| 1965 R. C. Thomas et al. Acronyms & Initialisms Dict. (ed. 2) 148 *BYO, party invitation notation meaning ‘Bring Your Own’ (Liquor). 1968 Catering May 12/2 One important alteration in the new Liquor Control Bill is that B.Y.O. permits for unlicensed restaurants have been abolished. 1973 Nation Rev. (Melbourne) 31 Aug. II. 1460/6 Most people can only eat out on any regular basis if they dine at a BYO and avoid the licensed houses. 1986 Daily Sun (Brisbane) 23 May 38/3 Samford Restaurant is a quaint BYO house in a venerable old home that has been renovated. |
| 1959 Amer. Speech XXXIV. 155 If they decide upon a party, they throw a ball or..in some cases, a *BYOB (bring your own bottle). 1975 New Yorker 26 May 32/1 Our parties are not just BYOB but also BYOW (Weed) and BYOBR (Brown Rice). 1984 M. Fermaglish Mollie's Rules for Socially Inept iii. 72 As long as the invitation doesn't say ‘BYOB’, they'll show up. |
2. B. or
B. flat, a humorous euphemism for
bug (
Cimex lectularius).
| 1853 Dickens Househ. Words XX. 326 A stout negro of the flat back tribe—known among comic writers as B flats. 1867 Cornh. Mag. Apr. 450 That little busy B. which invariably improves the darkness at the expense of every offering traveller. 1881 T. Hughes Rugby Tenn. 58 An insect suspiciously like a British B. flat. |
______________________________
Add:
[II.] [2.] [b.] (
vii)
Biochem. Designating the most common form of double-stranded DNA, consisting of a right-handed double helix in which the base pairs are almost perpendicular to the helix axis.
| 1953 [see *A II. 11]. 1968 Nature 9 Nov. 563/2 RNA may not be able to adopt a structure like that of B-DNA with a C2-endo sugar conformation. 1983 Sci. Amer. Dec. 87/2 Fibers of DNA can exist in two forms: as B DNA under conditions of high humidity and as A DNA when the humidity is lower. |
[III.] [1.] B.A.L.P.A. (
ˈbælpə), British Air Line Pilots' Association.
| 1937 Aeroplane LIII. 652/2 The *B.A.L.P.A. was formed to present the pilots' cases in a way for which they reasonably contended there was no machinery then available. 1946 Log Dec. 215 This is an important month for B.A.L.P.A. 1970 D. Francis Rat Race vii. 97 There's no B.A.L.P.A. to uphold your rights there. |
B and B,
b and b, bed and breakfast (see
bed n. 1 g (a)); a guest-house, etc. offering bed-and-breakfast accommodation.
| 1961 People 9 Apr. 11/5 The *B-and-B raider. Police were yesterday searching for the bed-and-breakfast raider. After breaking into a factory..he..went to sleep in the managing director's chair. 1964 Dalton's Weekly 18 Dec. 16/2 (Advt.), Newquay, Cornwall.—Modn. bungalow. Excel. cuisine. B. & b., evening dinner. 1967 K. Giles Death & Mr. Prettyman vi. 121 Mr. S said I could stay here if I only charged ten bob for b and b, bought my own dinner and got back by nine-fifteen tomorrow. 1986 Independent 13 Dec. 10/6 My [Adelaide] hotel..could have been any solid B & B in Eastbourne. |
BARB,
Barb (
bɑːb), Broadcasters' Audience Research Board, an organization founded in 1981 to assess the size of the audience for individual television programmes.
| 1982 Daily Tel. 9 Dec. 15/8 When broadcasting overseas the BBC is untroubled by the pedants of *Barb.., and invariably speaks in well-rounded million[s]. 1982 Listener 16 Dec. 27/3 The homes on the BARB panel don't register time-shift use of video-recorders. 1986 Stage 7 Aug. 18/3 The weekly figures produced for BARB by AGB, show that the Royal Wedding dominated the week's viewing. |
B. Ed., Bachelor of Education.
| 1941 J. M. Cattell et al. Leaders in Educ. (ed. 2) 123/1 Brown, Dr. W(iley) G(len)...*B. Ed. Nebraska State Normal School 08. 1963 Higher Educ.: Rep. Comm. under Ld. Robbins 1961–3 116 in Parl. Papers 1962–3 (Cmnd. 2154) XI. 639 What should the degree awarded to Training College students be called? We think it should be distinctive and recommend that it should be called a B.Ed. The provisions we have envisaged should make certain that it is regarded as a degree equivalent in standard to the B.A. 1964 New Statesman 13 Mar. 390/2 The proposals..would make the colleges university institutions,..and entitled to prepare suitable students..for a new degree, BEd. 1986 Times Higher Educ. Suppl. 13 June 7/4 Recruitment has completely altered since they introduced a four-year honours B Ed. |
bpi Computing, bits per inch.
| 1964 IEEE Trans. Electronic Computers XIII. 112/1 A recording technique was developed which achieves a packing density of 2500 bits per inch (*bpi). 1985 Computing Equipment Sept. 13/1 The 8000 series are available..storing up to 2.7 MBytes of formatted data on a DC 300 XL cartridge at 1600 bpi. |
bps Computing, bits per second.
| 1968 New Acronyms & Initialisms (Gale Research Co.) 32 *BPS, Bits Per Second (Data processing). 1975 R. L. Freeman Telecommunication Transmission Handbk. viii. 389 Voice frequency carrier telegraph techniques handle data rates up to 1200 bps. 1983 80 Microcomputing Feb. 24/1 A modem can clock at 4800 or 9600 baud, but data will be transmitted at 1200 or 2400 BPS. |
Bq = Becquerel n. 2.
| 1975 *Bq [see Becquerel n. 2]. 1986 Nature 31 July 393/1 Imports of foodstuffs from Eastern Europe would be prohibited while the content of radioactivity exceeded 600 Bq per kg. |
B.V.M. [L.
Beata Virgo Maria], The Blessed Virgin Mary.
| [1619 M. Inchofer Epistolae B. Virginis Mariæ ad Messanenses 2 (heading) Epistolæ B.V.M. ad Messanenses.] 1838 Catholic Directory (verso title-page), Feasts observed in England and Scotland..8 Sept. Nativity of *B.V.M. 1884 N. & Q. 8 Nov. 377/1 This festival, more commonly known as the ‘Assumption of the B.V.M.’..is observed on August 15. 1952 C. S. Lewis Lett. (1966) 243 A state..where the B.V.M. is treated really as a divinity and even becomes the centre of the religion. 1957 Oxf. Dict. Chr. Ch. 868/1 Some cultus of the BVM is held to be a necessary element in the spiritual life of the Catholic. 1986 P. D. James Taste for Death i. i. 17 ‘Don't you want 'em for the BVM?’ ‘We've got your uncle's roses for Our Lady.’ |
BW,
b/w,
b & w (
Cinematogr. and
Television), black and white, as
opp. to colour.
| 1960 O. Skilbeck ABC of Film & T.V. 22 *B/W, Black and White film. It is usual to have B/W Rush Prints of colour film and to use them for the Cutting copy, to save expense. 1974 New Acronyms & Initialisms (Gale Research Co.) 11/2 BW, Black and White. 1985 Music Week 2 Feb. 42/5 Replacing the b/w with the original videotape colour recordings. 1986 City Limits 16 Oct. 57 A 25-page essay with b&w stills on some of the hidden history of films. |
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Add:
[III.] [1.] BCD, binary coded decimal.
| 1959 E. M. McCormick Digital Computer Primer iv. 49 An important characteristic of any *bcd system is the ability to form the nines complement of the digit. 1963 B. W. Arden Introd. Digital Computing xviii. 341 Six BCD characters can be stored in an IBM 7090 computer word. 1980 C. S. French Computer Sci. xix. 103 BCD addition is longer than Pure Binary addition. |
BLT colloq. (
orig. U.S.), bacon, lettuce, and tomato (sandwich).
| [1941 J. Smiley Hash House Lingo 13 B.M.T. [sic], bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.] 1952 Amer. Speech XXVII. 231 The following items were collected..during the summer of 1949... B.L.T. Bacon, lettuce, and tomato. 1989 US Air Sept. 75/2 He eats at his desk every day, sometimes dining on such delicacies as a hot dog or a BLT. |
BNF Computing, Backus-Naur (formerly Backus normal) form.
| 1964 Proc. AFIPS Conf. XXV. 61/2 The syntax of the source language is described in a language called BNF (to suggest ‘Backus normal form’, denoted B.n.f.). BNF looks much like B.n.f. 1966 Nordisk Tidskr. Informations-Behandling VI. 302 The language is a finite ordered set of production-rules, written in Backus Normal Form (BNF). 1987 B. J. MacLennan Princ. Programming Languages (ed. 2) iv. 159 The decision to use the BNF notation in the Algol-60 Report resulted from Peter Naur's realization that his understanding of the Algol-58 description did not agree with that of John Backus. |
BSE, bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
| 1987 Economist 14 Nov. 92/3 Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (*bse) twists the tongues of vets and wrecks the brains of cows. 1988 Vet. Rec. 6 Feb. 142/1 It is unlikely that bovine spongiform encephalopathy (bse) is caused by hexachlorophene poisoning. 1993 Guardian 30 Oct. 8/8 If man is susceptible to BSE, then at least 8 million adults are likely to have eaten enough to get Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. 1996 Daily Tel. 25 Mar. 1 The farming and meat processing industries [are] facing a financial disaster of unprecedented proportions following the warning of a possible link with a human strain of BSE. |
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B2B n. (also
b2b) business to business; commerce between businesses rather than between business and consumer (used chiefly in relation to Internet commerce);
freq. attrib.| 1994 Marketing News (Nexis) 12 Sept. The AMA has launched the *B2B Marketing Exchange, an Internet bulletin board designed to provide information on coming events, research sites, courses, and articles of interest to business-to-business marketing academics and practitioners. 1998 Financial Times (Nexis) 20 Oct. (Survey section) 1 These potential revenue streams present growth opportunities for incumbents and a fresh paradigm for new entrants, both of which feel compelled to embrace B2B (business-to-business) in order to succeed. 2000 Wired Feb. 216/2 (advt.) Being the only neutral B2B marketplace for the $700 billion dollar global steel industry is no easy task. |
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bcc n. (also
BCC,
Bcc)
= blind carbon copy n. at
blind adj. Additions.
| 1974 W. H. Bonner Better Business Writing 455 You would omit the carbon copy notation from the original, but would typewrite the letters *bcc (meaning blind carbon copy) on the carbon copies only. 2004 C. Lindsell-Roberts Strategic Business Lett. & E-mail xiv. 276 Use Bcc prudently, because it's a clear indication you're sending something unbeknownst to the person or people in the To field. |
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bcc v. (also
BCC,
Bcc; past tense
bcc'd,
bcced)
trans. to send a blind carbon copy of a communication to (a recipient), now
esp. via email (
freq. with
on); (also) to send a blind carbon copy of (a communication).
| 1989 Federal News Service (Nexis) 30 June You wrote a letter, and you ‘*bcc'd’ [her]. 2000 Business Times (S. Afr.) (Nexis) 2 July 24 Just think of the last time someone CCed, or even worse, BCCed some piece of e-mail to someone else. 2004 PC World Mar. 128/1 We could set T-bird to bcc another address on all outgoing mail. |
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BDD n. Psychiatry = body dysmorphic disorder n. at
body n. Additions.
| 1993 Jrnl. Clin. Psychiatry 54 389 Although body dysmorphic disorder (*BDD) is classified in DSM-III-R as a nonpsychotic somatoform disorder, controversy exists as to whether BDD can present with psychotic features. 1997 Daily Mail (Nexis) 16 Dec. 33 People with BDD may avoid a wide range of social or public situations, or may enter them but suffer from acute self-consciousness. 2000 F. Neziroglu et al. in W. K. Goodman et al. Obsessive-compulsive Disorder xiii. 239 BDD involves a faulty or disturbed belief as well as body misperception. BDD patients..attempt to camouflage their perceived ugliness by wearing hats or sunglasses, or by undergoing plastic surgery. |
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BE n. Linguistics Black English;
cf. BEV n. at Additions.
| 1970R. D. Abrahams in Florida FL Reporter 8 27, I am concerned here that we are still conceiving of black speakers of Black English (*BE) as disadvantaged. 1990 Word 41 204 Generally, two variants of each variable are discussed: the Standard English (SE) variants; and the non-standard (Black English, BE) variants taken together. |
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BEC n. Physics Bose–Einstein condensation; (also) Bose–Einstein condensate.
| 1975 Jrnl. Low Temperature Physics 21 543 We treat the question of the existence of Bose-Einstein condensation (*BEC) in Bose lattice systems. 1976 Progress Theoret. Physics 56 1689 Dynamics of Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) is treated on the basis of the Mori theory of non-equilibrium thermodynamics. 2001 Nature 24 May 427/1 For BEC to occur, the quantum wavelengths of the atoms must be greater than their average separation, which for liquid helium is about 0.4 nanometres. |
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BEV n. Linguistics Black English Vernacular (
AAVE is now the preferred term).
| 1972 W. Labov Lang. in Inner City p. xiii, I will then refer to the black English vernacular (*BEV) as that relatively uniform grammar found in its most consistent form in the speech of black youth from 8 to 19 years old who participate fully in the street culture of the inner cities. 1994 S. Pinker Lang. Instinct ii. 30 Larry and other BEV speakers invert subjects and auxiliaries in negative main clauses like Don't nobody know. |
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BGH n. (also
bGH)
Physiol. = bovine growth hormone n. at
bovine adj. Additions.
| [1959 Science 11 Dec. 1653 Growth hormone preparations of simian (M425B) and bovine (NIH-BGH-1) origins were dissolved in 0.15 ml of distilled water..and added to the medium.] 1971 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 68 1054 The hormonal specificity of this interaction is attested to by the lack of response of human erythrocyte membranes to *BGH, a hormone without effect on human tissues. 1990 Nation 17 Dec. 771/2 From the beginning of his testing of BGH,..it was evident that cases of mastitis..were unusually high among test herds. 1999 R. R. Colwell et al. in S. M. Friedman Communicating Uncertainty xiv. 259 The scientific consensus is that BGH is not harmful to humans. |
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BME adj. Brit. black and minority ethnic; of or designating members of black and ethnic minority (
esp. South Asian) communities in the United Kingdom.
| 1997 N. Seabrook Nutrition in Gen. Pract. xii. 175 A survey carried out on the health and lifestyles of about 3500 Black and minority ethnic (*BME) groups. 2004 Church Times 8 Oct. 2/5 The research was based on focus groups of BME mothers of children under five. 2007 Voice 16–22 Apr. 16/3 Seven per cent of all households in England are black and minority ethnic, yet BME households account for 32 per cent of overcrowded families. |
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BMI n. Med. = body mass index n. at
body n. Additions.
| 1975 Jrnl. Chronic Dis. 28 113 (table) *BMI. 1988 Jrnl. Royal Statist. Soc. (B.) 151 465 The body mass index (BMI)..had only occasionally been used in relief feeding. 1997 Daily Tel. 30 Dec. 12/4 Although the present BMI guidance is useful, we have to refine it. For example, a BMI of 25 for a small-boned ectomorph like myself would represent massive overweight. |
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BOE n. (also
boe)
Oil Industry barrels of oil equivalent (in the volumetric measurement of oil, one barrel is 35 gallons, or approx. 158.98 litres).
| 1979 Oil & Gas Jrnl. 9 Apr. 203/3 Total footage drilled cost $6.4 billion and resulted in a new daily oil equivalent production of 4,896,478 *BOE/d. 1999 Petroleum Finance Week (Electronic ed.) 24 Aug. Saga's reserves at the end of 1998 were 442m boe. |
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BPR n. = business process redesign n. or
business process re-engineering n. at
business n. Additions.
| 1991 Computerworld 2 Dec. 91/1 The faint of heart have no business messing around with business process redesign (*BPR). 1998 Manuf. Managem. July–Aug. 25/3 (advt.) A unique 2-day programme introducing a range of vital cost-reduction techniques including: Kaizen Costing, Target Costing, BPR..and Value Analysis. |
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BST n. (also
bSt)
Physiol. = bovine somatotropin n. at
bovine adj. Additions.
| 1986 Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 21 Apr. c3 The breakthrough involves a natural growth hormone called bovine somatotropin (*BST)... ‘The biggest problem with BST is the emotional response,’ said Hutjens. 1995 Canad. Forum May 48/1 In 1986, recognizing the marketing problems in selling a growth hormone, BGH manufacturers started using the scientific term bovine somatotropin or BST. 2003 Fresno (Calif.) Bee (Nexis) 17 Jan. c1 BST is a naturally occurring protein that is present in all milk. It's rbST, an artificial growth hormone, that is what some dairy operators give to their cows. |
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BE Linguistics British English;
cf. BrE at Additions.
| 1954 Amer. Speech 29 57 Topically arranged word lists..in three columns, one for the American English (AE) words, one for their British English (*BE) equivalents, and one for the German equivalents. 2006Y. Kachru in S. J. Nero Dial., Englishes, Creoles, & Educ. i. 23 There is expectation that India, Nigeria and Singapore will somehow become GAE, BE or AusE-speaking countries forgetting their own histories of English language and literature. |
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BrE Linguistics British English;
cf. BE at Additions.
| 1968 Language 44 129 Barber illustrates: AmE he often is seen there vs. *BrE he is often seen there. 2005 C. McCully & S. Hilles Earliest Eng. ii. 35 Certain BrE accents..appear to lack the phoneme /h/, so you hear 'eart for heart. |