New Persian bīd (earlier bēḏ, Middle Persian wēt, Avestan vaēti (fem.) “willow (branch),” cf. Old Indian veta (masc.) “aquatic climbing plant” or “branch,” Greek itéa, Latin vitis “vine,” Old High German wīda, are all derived from Indo-European *wei-t- “to turn, bend, wind.” In modern Iranian dialects the word takes forms such as Kurdish vī or bī, Baluchi gēt, Pashto wala (see AirWb., col. 1314; Grundriss I, 2nd ed., pp. 49, 299, and elsewhere; Mayrhofer, Dictionary III, pp. 254f.; G. Morgenstierne, An Etymological Vocabulary of Pashto, Oslo, 1927, p. 86; Horn, Etymologie and Hübschmann, Persische Studien, no. 251; Pokorny, p. 1122; W. Eilers, Westiranische Mundarten aus der Sammlung Wilhelm Eilers I (Ḵᵛānsārī), p. 5 n. 8 on p. 6, p. 388, and II [Gazi], p. 643).
The concept of “turning, bending, winding” which underlies New Pers. bīd and German Wiede reappears in English “willow” (from Anglo-Saxon welig), Dutch wilg, Greek helikē; but these are from Indo-European *weli-kā and therefore from wel “to turn, wind” (Pokorny, p. 1141). Flexible willow shoots are still used today for making baskets, creels, etc. (bīdbāfī).
The Armenian for “willow” is urī, and the Arabic is ṣafṣāf “tree which grows in rows” (Arabic ṣaff, Semitic ṢP), willows being usually planted in rows along water-courses. The Turkish for “willow” is söğüt (older sögüt), a word of uncertain etymology.
Willow trees are found in all the Iranian lands, mainly along streams and canals, and since their leaves (bīdbarg) exhale a pleasant fragrance in the summer glare it is not surprising that place names with bīd should be widespread. In the following list (taken from Razmārā’s Farhang) the bīd component of most of the names certainly means “willow”: Bīd; with common suffixes Bīdak, Bīda, Bīdakān, Bīdān, Bīdača, Bīd(e)la, Bīdešk or Bīdešg, Bīdū, Bīdūk, Bīdūʾīyā, Bīdābīd, and Bīdbīdak (“rich in willows”), Bīdestān; with attributives Bīdābād, Bīd-e Amīn, Bīd-e Boland, Bīdestaḵr, Bīdestū (in Baluchistan), Bīdgol, Bīd(e)ḵān, Bīdḵᵛān, Bīdḵᵛāb, Bīdḵarakī, Bīdḵayrī, Bīdḵᵛor, Bīd-o-ḵ(a)vīd, Bīdsarā, Bīd-e Sūḵta, Bīd-e Sorḵ, Bīd-e Zāḡ, Bīd-e Zangol, Bīd-e Zard, Bīd-e Zarrīn, also Bēdvāz (mountain in Transoxiana, cited by Steingass), and several more which are debatable; with bīd as the second component, Ābbīd, Bāḡbīd, Bāmbīd, Benābīd, Bonbīd, Čāhbīdū, Darbīd, Darabīd, Dehbīd, Gowdbīd Gowdbīdūʾīya, Kūšk(e)bīdak, Padabīd, Padabīda, Palabīd.
Words compounded with bīd given in the dictionaries are bīdgīā (“willow herb”), which means “artichoke,” and bīdgīāh (the same), which is said also to mean “a bird” (= Arabic ṯīl, according to ʿA.-A. Nafīsī, Farhang-e Nafīsī I, Tehran, 1355 Š./1976, p. 682); bīdkeš “a weapon” (made of willow wood?); bīdmāl “willow twigs used for cleaning or polishing”; bīdvand, a stone with medicinal uses. See ii, below, for names of different kinds of willow.
Like bīd in Iran, söğüt is a widespread toponym in Turkey. Twenty-six villages named simply Söğüt (“Willow”) are listed in the Köylerimiz gazetteer. Also very common are Söğütlü (adjective, but perhaps a corruption of putative söğtülük “willow thicket”), Sögütçük (diminutive, cf. Pers. Bīdak), and compound names such as Söğütalanı “Willow Plain,” Söğütbel and Söğütgediği “Willow Pass,” Söğütdere(si) “Willow Valley” (cf. Darabīd and Darbīd in Iran), Söğüteli “Willow House.”
In Armenian toponymy likewise, urī and urēni meaning “willow” often appear: e.g., Urīkʿ “Willow Thicket” (cf. Bīdestdān, Söğütlü), Urēacʿ tapʿ “Willow Plain” (cf. Söğütalanı), Urēacʿ pʿor (cf. Darabid, Söğütdere; see H. Hübschmann, “Die altarmenischen Ortsnamen,” IF 17, 1904, pp. 197-490, esp. p. 462).
Finally it should be noted that bīd “larva” or “moth,” the New Pers. homonym of bīd “willow,” may in spite of the semantic difference be traced to the same Indo-European root wei-t “to turn” (Pokorny, 1120). Like willows, caterpillars bend and twist. Latin vermis, German wurm, English worm, from Indo-European *wṛmi/wṛmo, similarly evoke the concept of turning and bending.
Bibliography : Given in the text.