Meaning

verb indicate by signs

originThe verb is derived partly from the following: * From Middle English boden, bodian (“to be a sign or symbol, betoken, signify; to be an omen of a future event, forebode, foreshadow; to foretell, presage; to command, order; to deliver a message, proclaim, report; to preach”), from Old English bodian (“to announce, proclaim, tell; to foretell, prophesy; to preach; etc.”), from Proto-West Germanic…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0