becall comes from Middle English bicallen, from the intensive prefix be- + callen ('to call'). The verb call itself is of Old Norse origin (kalla). Morphologically, the word is transparent as a compound: its parts remain visible in the modern spelling, while the older history of those parts supplies the deeper ancestry. In modern use, the verb sense is "to call names; to revile or abuse verbally (archaic)", which keeps the etymology connected to the word's present dictionary value rather than treating it as a merely historical label. The wider word family includes related English forms such as call, miscall, showing how the same base continues to support neighboring English vocabulary. The principal historical forms in the chain include Old English be-, Old Norse kalla, which anchor the explanation in named linguistic material.