Beamish
/ˈbiːmɪʃ/noun
Cheerful, radiant, or smilingly happy.
Did you know?Beamish is an old English adjective formed from beam, and beam itself goes back to a Germanic word for a tree trunk before it came to mean a ray of light, showing how language can literally turn wood into radiance.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*baumaz
“tree, trunk, beam of wood”
Old English
OE
bēam
“tree; beam of wood; later also a ray or shaft of light”
Old English
OE
-isc
“adjectival suffix meaning 'pertaining to' or 'like'”
Middle English
ME
beamish
“bright, radiant; later, cheerful or smiling”
Modern English
English
beamish
“cheerful, radiant, or smilingly happy”