beadsman
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From earlier bedeman, from Middle English bedeman (“a petitioner”), equivalent to bead (“request, petition, prayer”) + -man.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]beadsman (plural beadsmen)
- (historical) A petitioner; someone who seeks some type of favour from another, usually from a superior.
- A man employed in praying; especially one who prays for another.
- 2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 499:
- Good Lord Cromwell, stand my friend: exert yourself for Thomas Howard, who is your daily beadsman, your debtor for life.
- (historical, England) A poor man, supported in a beadhouse, and required to pray for the soul of its founder; an almsman.
- 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):
- Whereby ye shall bind me to be […] your poor beadsman for ever unto Almighty God.
- (Scotland, historical) A public almsman; one who received alms from the king, and was expected in return to pray for the royal welfare and that of the state; a licensed beggar.
Related terms
[edit]Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “beadsman”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)
Anagrams
[edit]Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms suffixed with -man
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- English terms with historical senses
- English terms with quotations
- English English
- Scottish English
- English terms interfixed with -s-
- en:People