bet: [16] Since its comparatively late arrival, bet has ousted the earlier lay, wager, and game as the main term for ‘risking money on an uncertain outcome’ (gamble is later still). It is by no means clear where it came from; the usual explanation is that it is short for the noun abet, in the sense ‘instigation, encouragement, support’ – that is, one is giving one’s ‘support’ to that which one thinks, or hopes, may happen in the future (abet itself comes from the Old French verb abeter, and is related to English bait).
It first appears in Robert Greene’s Art of Cony Catching 1592, which suggests an origin in the argot of smalltime Elizabethan criminals. => abet, bait, bite
1590s, as both a verb and noun, in the argot of petty criminals, of unknown origin; probably a shortening of abet or else from obsolete beet "to make good," from Old English bætan "make better, arouse, stimulate," from Proto-Germanic *baitjan, in which case the verb would be the original. The original notion is perhaps "to improve" a contest by wagering on it, or it is from the "bait" sense in abet. Used since 1852 in various American English slang assertions (compare you bet "be assured," 1857). Related: Betting.
双语例句
1. Jockeys are forbidden to bet on the outcome of races.
职业赛马骑师禁止对赛马结果下注。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Do you always have a bet on the Grand National?
你总是对全国赛马大会下点注吗？
来自柯林斯例句
3. Large overseas-based trusts are an excellent each way bet.
大型海外基金的投资前景非常好。
来自柯林斯例句
4. I bet you make breakfast and wash up their plates, too.
我肯定是你做的早餐并且清洗了他们的餐具。
来自柯林斯例句
5. It is a safe bet that the current owners will not sell.
