a house; _e.g._ Bethany (the house of dates); Bethphage (of figs); Bethsaida (of fish); Bethoron (of caves); Bethabara (of the ford); Bethlehem (the house of bread), but its present name, _Beit-lahm_, means the house of flesh; Bethesda (of mercy); Betharaba (desert dwelling); Bethjesimoth (of wastes); Bethshemish Grk. _Heliopolis_ (the house or city of the sun); its Egyptian name was _Aun-i-Aun_ (light of light), contracted to _On_; Beit-Allah (the house of God), at Mecca; Beit-el-Fakih (the house of the saint), on the Red Sea. [Sidenote: BETTWS (Cym.-Cel.),] a portion of land lying between a river and a hill, hence a dwelling so situated; _e.g._ Bettws-yn-y-coed (the dwelling in the wood); Bettws-disserth (the retreat dwelling); Bettws-Garmon (of St. Germanus, where he led the Britons to the famous Alleluia victory over the Saxons); Bettws-Newydd (new dwelling). [Sidenote: BETULA (Lat.), BOULEAU (Fr.),] the birch-tree; _e.g._ Le Boulay, La Boulay, Les Boulages, Les Boulus, Belloy (places planted with birch-trees). [Sidenote: BIBER, BEVER (Teut.), BOBR (Sclav.),] the beaver; _e.g._ the Biber, Beber, Biberich, Beber-bach (rivers in Germany); Bober, Boberau, Bobronia (beaver river), in Silesia and Russia; Bobersburg (on the R. Bober); Biberschlag (beaver’s wood clearing); Biberstein (beaver rock); Beverley, in Yorkshire, anc. _Biberlac_ (beaver lake), formerly surrounded by marshy ground, the resort of beavers; Beverstone, in Gloucester; Beverloo (beaver marsh), in Belgium. [Sidenote: BILL,] an old German word, signifying plain or level; _e.g._ Bilderlah (the field of the plain); Billig-ham (level dwelling); Wald-billig (woody plain); Wasser-billig (the watery plain); Bilstein (level rock); Bielefeld (level field); Bieler-see (the lake on the plain). [Sidenote: BIOR (Gadhelic),] water, an element in many river names; _e.g._ the Bere, in Dorset; Ver, Hereford; Bervie, in Mearns. The town of Lifford, in Donegal, was originally _Leith-bhearr_ (the gray water); Berra, a lake in France; the Ebura or Eure, in Normandy; and in Yorkshire, the Ebro, anc. _Iberus_; Ivry, in Normandy, anc. _Ebarovicus_ (the town on the Ebura). [Sidenote: BIRCE, BIRKE (Teut.), BERK, (Lat.) BETULA, BEORC (A.S.),] the birch-tree; _e.g._ Birkenhead (the head of the birches); Birchholt (birch wood); Berkeley (birch field); Birchington, Birkhoff (the birch-tree dwelling and court); Birkhampstead (the home place among the birches); Oberbirchen (the upper birches); but Berkshire is not from this root; it was called by the Anglo-Saxons _Berroc-shyre_, supposed to be named from the abundance of _berroc_ (boxwood), or the _bare-oak-shire_, from a certain polled oak in Windsor Forest, where the Britons were wont to hold their provincial meetings. [Sidenote: BLAEN (Cym.-Cel.),]