Why should it be limited to the imperative? (I will ignore etymological explantions.) Here are some present-tense indicative forms:
I bamware
You/you (pl)/we/they barware
He/she/it besware (pronounced with a long e: "beesware"). You might have thought this one would be "bisware", but nope.
You're welcome.
a
Posted by: abc | November 07, 2008 at 11:53 AM
Why not "bisware"? "Besware" sounds like "beswear", to swear to an oath. I would bamware of running up against such avoidable homonyms, if I were in charge of conjugating novelly.
Posted by: Daniel | November 07, 2008 at 11:53 AM
Oh, you're putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable: BEESware, not beeSWEAR.
And the reason why not "bisware": I thought of "besware" first. It comes more naturally to me, if you can believe that. I actually considered it for the first-person form as well, but I *besware of the dangers of too much novelty.
Posted by: ben wolfson | November 07, 2008 at 11:55 AM
II. As an inflected verb.
1598 FLORIO, Raueduto, bewared, espied. 1606 N. BAXTER Sidney's Ourania Kiij, Bewaring of too hot combustion. 1661 MILTON Accedence Wks. 1738 I. 613, I had bewar'd if I had foreseen. 1672 NEWTON in Rigaud Corr. Sci. Men (1841) II. 316, I stirred them a little together, bewaring..that I drew not in breath near the pernicious fumes. 1700 DRYDEN Cock & Fox 799 Once warn'd is well bewar'd. 1860 EMERSON Cond. Life i. (1861) 32 We beware to ask only for high things. 1870 Echo 17 Oct., Showing the greatest respect..and bewaring of the slightest insubordination.
Posted by: Jeff Rubard | November 07, 2008 at 06:49 PM
My eldest stepdaughter, when she was a small child, was told by her mother to behave, and replied, "I'm BEIN'-hayve!"
Posted by: rone | November 08, 2008 at 12:07 PM