1798: Bid and Bitte Nov 16, 2019

Historically speaking 'bid' was a bit of a contronym, meaning both 'to ask' and 'to give'. Though that relation is actually fairly common, in this case it was just luck. 'Bid' as in 'an offer' comes from a different word than when it means 'to ask', but it is the latter to which the German 'bitte' meaning 'please' and 'you're welcome' is related. It is also this word which would have been the modern equivalent of 'good', thus making the paradigm

good -> better -> best | German: gut -> besser -> besten

into the far more understandable

bid -> better -> best | German: bit(ten)-> besser -> besten

See yesterday's post on this here.