becomeとは 意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• (英国発音) IPA^(key): /bɪˈkʌm/, /bəˈkʌm/

  (Northern England) IPA^(key): /bɪˈkʊm/, /bəˈkʊm/

• (米国発音) IPA^(key): /bɪˈkʌm/, /biˈkʌm/, /bəˈkʌm/
  • 韻: -ʌm
  • ハイフネーション: be‧come

動詞

become (third-person singular simple present becomes, present participle becoming, simple past became, past participle become or (まれに, dialectal) becomen)

1. (copulative) begin to be; turn into. [from 12th c.]

   Synonyms: get, turn, go

   She became a doctor when she was 25.

   The weather will become cold after the sun goes down.

   The sense ‘state or process of bearing fruit’ has become imposed on fruition as the 20c. proceeded.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; for, even after she had conquered her love for the Celebrity, the mortification of having been jilted by him remained.

   • 2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport:

     Then, as the Sunderland fans' cheers bellowed around the stadium, United's title bid was over when it became apparent City had pinched a last-gasp winner to seal their first title in 44 years.

   • 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 206-7:

     Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.

2. (copulative) To come about; happen; come into being; arise. [from 12th c.]

   What became of him after he was let go?

   It hath becomen so that many a man had to sterve.

4. (transitive) To be proper for; to beseem. [from 13th c.]
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     Ay, lord, she will become thy bed, I warrant,
     And bring thee forth brave brood.

   • 1892, Ambrose Bierce, “The Applicant,” in The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume II: In the Midst of Life (Tales of Soldiers かつ Civilians), New York: Gordian Press, 1966,^[1]

     He was hatted, booted, overcoated, and umbrellaed, as became a person who was about to expose himself to the night and the storm on an errand of charity […]

   • 1930, Duff Cooper, Talleyrand, Folio Society, 2010, p.7:

     His ordination […] enabled him to be independent of his parents, and to afford a manner of living which became his rank rather than his calling.

5. (transitive) Of an adornment, piece of clothing etc.: to look attractive on (someone). [from 14th c.]

   That dress really becomes you.

6. (intransitive, obsolete) To arrive, come (to a place). [9th–18th c.]
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter II, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVIII:

     & thenne the noble knyghte sire Launcelot departed with ryghte heuy chere sodenly / that none erthely creature wyste of hym / nor where he was become / but sir Bors

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:

     But, madam, where is Warwick then become?

使用する際の注意点

• In Early Modern English, the second-person informal singular indicative verb forms used with thou were becomest in the present and becamest in the past tenses. Similarly, becometh was used as a third-person singular indicative present form.
• Also in Early Modern English, to become (かつ some other intranstive verbs like to come かつ to go) used the auxiliary be rather than have for perfect aspect constructions. In current usage, to have is standard.

  1965, The Decision to Drop the Bomb‎^[2], PeriscopeFilm, spoken by Interviewee (J.R. Oppenheimer), the original text in Sanskrit and his own translation:

  कालोऽस्मि लोकक्षयकृत्प्रवृद्धो / लोकान्समाहर्तुमिह प्रवृत्तः ।

  kāloʼsmi lokakṣayakṛtpravṛddho / lokānsamāhartumiha pravṛttaḥ .

  Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds

• These forms and uses persisted into Modern English in a few archaic, dialectal, poetic, etc. contexts.

同意語

• (to be suitable for): befit, suit

派生語

参照

• “become”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• become in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• The Dictionary of the Scots Language
• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “become”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.