Forms: 1 béte, 4–6 bete, 5–7 beete, 6– beet. [OE. béte, ad. L. bēta, whence also OHG. bieza (8th c.), MHG. bieze, MLG. and MDu. bête, etc. The plant was of early cultivation, and the name was adopted from Latin into the Teutonic languages, but though common in OE., no further mention of it occurs before c. 1400.]
1. A plantor genus of plants (N.O. Chenopodiaceæ), having, in cultivation, a succulent root much used for food, and also for yielding sugar. There are two species, the Common or Red Beet (Beta vulgaris), found wild on the British coasts, and cultivated in several varieties, both as an esculent, and as an ornamental foliage plant, and the White Beet (B. cicla), chiefly used in the production of sugar. Formerly almost always spoken of in plural ‘beets,’ like beans, pease, greens, etc.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 226. Þás wyrta sindon … éað beʓeatra, béte and mealwe.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. xxii. (1495), 616. Men may graffe on a bete stocke as men doon on a Caustocke.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst., 22. Erbys and gresse, both beetes and brake.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 34. Betys herbe, beta.
1551. Turner, Herbal (1568), F iij a. There are twoo kyndes of Betes, the white bete whyche is called sicula, and blake betes.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Countr. Farm, 173. If you would make choyce of faire beets, chuse rather the white than either the blacke or red.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, 47. Leaves, like those of the Beet or Winter-green.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, i. 249. Beets, emollient, nutritive, and relaxing.
a. 1772. Borlase, in C. Johns, Week at Lizard (1848), 185. One year nothing will grow but mallows, and the next nothing but beets.
1870. H. Macmillan, Bible Teach., v. 100. The wild beet and cabbage still grow on our sea-shores.
2. Comb. and Attrib., as beet leaves, -sugar; beet-grower, -growing; BEET-ROOT. † Beet-raves [a. F. bette-rave ‘beet,’ lit. ‘beet-turnip’], the small red beet.
1719. London & Wise, Compl. Gard., 197. Beet-raves, or Beet-Radishes, that is, Red Beets, produce roots for Sallads.
1736. Bailey, Houshold Dict., s.v. Beets, Beet-raves are made use of to colour wine.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 131. Leave on the bacon and beet leaves.
1833. R. Phillips, Fam. Cycl., 230. The French … still persevere in manufacturing beet-sugar.
1837. Ht. Martineau, Soc. in Amer., II. 55. The interest excited by this subject of beet-growing is very strong.
