Meaning

noun a light strong brittle grey toxic bivalent metallic element

verb have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)

verb be identical to; be someone or something

originFrom Middle English been (“to be”). See below for more. Further etymology of be and its conjugated forms The various forms have three separate origins, which were mixed together at various times in the history of English. * The forms beginning with b- come from Old English bēon (“to be, become”), from Proto-Germanic *beuną (“to be, exist, come to be, become”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH-yé-ti…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0