Robert Beith (May 17, 1843 in Darlington Township, Canada West – January 26, 1922) was a Canadian politician and farmer. He was elected to the Canadian House of Commons as a Member of the Liberal Party in 1891 to represent the riding of Durham West. He was re-elected in 1896 then lost in 1900 but re-elected in 1902 after the previous election was declared void on October 6, 1901. He was appointed to the senate of Canada by Sir Wilfrid Laurier on January 15, 1907 to represent the senate division of Bowmanville, Ontario.
Coordinates: 55°45′12″N 4°37′55″W / 55.7533°N 4.6319°W
Beith is a small town situated in the Garnock Valley, North Ayrshire, Scotland approximately 20 miles (30 kilometres) south-west of Glasgow. The town is situated on the crest of a hill and was known originally as the "Hill o' Beith" (hill of the birches) after its Court Hill.
Beith's name is thought to emanate from Ogham, which is sometimes referred to as the "Celtic Tree Alphabet", ascribing names of trees to individual letters. Beithe in Old Irish means Birch-tree (cognate to Latin betula). There is reason to believe that the whole of the district was covered with woods. The town of Beith itself was once known as 'Hill of Beith' as this was the name of the feudal barony and was itself derived from the Court Hill near Hill of Beith Castle.
The Wood of Beit, now the 'Moor of Beith', has been identified as an Arthurian site where according to Taliessin in a poem under the name of 'Canowan' it was the site of a battle in the wood of Beit at the close of the day.
Beith is the Irish name of the first letter of the Ogham alphabet, ᚁ, meaning "birch". In Old Irish, the letter name was Beithe, which is related to Welsh bedw(en), Breton bezv(enn), and Latin betula. Its Proto-Indo-European root was *gʷet- 'resin, gum'. Its phonetic value is [b].
The Auraicept na n-Éces contains the tale of the mythological origins of Beith
In the medieval kennings, the verses associated with Beith are:
Peith ᚚ, a late addition to the Forfeda, is a variant of Beith, with a phonetic value of [p], also called beithe bog "soft beithe", [p] being considered a "soft" variant of [b]. It likely replaced Ifín ᚘ, one of the "original" five Forfeda. Prior to the addition of the Forfeda to the original twenty letters, both [p] and [b] were probably symbolized by the same letter: Beith.
Beith is a surname. Notable people with the name include: