beaconyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[beacon 词源字典]
beacon: [OE] In Old English, bēacen meant simply ‘sign’; it did not develop its modern senses ‘signal fire’ and ‘lighthouse’ until the 14th century. Its source is West Germanic *baukna, from which English also gets beckon [OE].
=> beckon[beacon etymology, beacon origin, 英语词源]
beacon (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
Old English beacen "sign, portent, lighthouse," from West Germanic *baukna "beacon, signal" (cognates: Old Frisian baken, Old Saxon bokan, Old High German bouhhan); not found outside Germanic. Perhaps borrowed from Latin bucina "a crooked horn or trumpet, signal horn." But more likely from PIE *bhew-, a variant of the base *bha- (1) "to gleam, shine" (see phantasm). Figurative use from c. 1600.