beadle

See also: Beadle

English

Alternative forms

• bedel, bedell (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English bedel, bidel, from Old English bydel (“warrant officer, apparitor”), from Proto-Germanic *budilaz (“herald”). Cognate with Dutch beul, German Büttel. More at bid.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbiːdəɫ]
• Rhymes: -iːdəl

Noun

beadle (plural beadles)

1. a parish constable, a uniformed minor (lay) official, who ushers and keeps order
2. (Scotland, ecclesiastic) an attendant to the minister
3. a warrant officer

Quotations

• 1789, William Blake, "Holy Thursday"

Twas on a holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,

The children walking two and two in red and blue and green:

Grey-headed beadles walked before, with wands as white as snow,

Till into the high dome of Paul's they like Thames waters flow. - William Blake, "Holy Thursday" (1789)

• 1929, Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, Penguin Books, paperback edition, page 8

  His face expressed horror and indignation. Instinct rather than reason came to my help; he was a Beadle; I was a woman.

Derived terms

• beadledom
• beadleism
• beadlery
• beadleship

Translations

a parish constable

• Czech: dráb (cs) m
• Dutch: kerkbaljuw (nl) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• French: bedeau (fr) m, suisse (fr) m
• Hebrew: shmsh

an attendant to a Scottish minister

• Interlingue:
• Scottish Gaelic: maor-eaglaise m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

a warrant officer

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Esperanto: ^{(please verify)} pedelo
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} chierico (it) m, ^{(please verify)} sagrestano (it) m

Anagrams

• bealed, bedeal, belead