bede

See also: bédé, bêdê, bědě, będę, bê đê, and bê-đê

English

Alternative forms

• bead

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /biːd/
• Rhymes: -iːd

Etymology 1

From Middle English bēde (“prayer, request, supplication, order, command, rosary, bead”), from Old English gebed (“prayer, petition, supplication, religious service, an ordinance”), from Proto-West Germanic *bed, from Proto-Germanic *bedą (“prayer, entreaty”). Cognate with Dutch gebed and bede, German Gebet.

Noun

bede (plural bedes)

1. Prayer, request, supplication
   • 1875 March, Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, volume 15, number 87:

     Thus originated the alms-(or bede-) houses so frequently met with in the retired villages of England.

   • 1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume (please specify the volume), [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC:

     By Allah thy bede is good indeed and right is thy rede!

   • 2008, Time to Ditch St. George:

     […] because miracles had frequently been done at his burial-place, even at the bede-house where he was buried.

   • 2011, Where Did Beaded Flowers Come From?:

     Because of the length of the original rosary, it became customary to pay someone, usually a resident of an almshouse, to recite the prayers. These people were referred to as bede women or men, and it was they who made the first bead flowers.

2. Rosary.
   • 1566, Sir David Lindsay, A Dialogue betweene Experience and a Courtier:

     In Pilgrimage from towne to towne: With offring and with Drilon: To them they bable on their bedes: That they may helpe them in their nedes.

   • 1642, William Prynne, A Pleasant Purge, for a Roman Catholike, to Evacuate His Evill Humours, page 20:

     Or doe they use their Bedes alone to finde That tale of Paters which they seldome minde?

   • 1870, William Morris, The Earthly Paradise:

     Towards a rude hermitage he made To fetch the priest unto his need, To bury her and say her bede

   • 1910, Hilaire Belloc, “The Little Serving Maid”, in Verses, page 39:

     Then the Little Serving Maid She went and laid her down, With her cross and her bede, In her new courting gown.

Etymology 2

From Middle English bēden (“to offer”), from Old English bēodan, from Proto-West Germanic *beudan, from Proto-Germanic *beudaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewdʰ-.

Germanic cognates include Old Frisian biada, Old Saxon biodan (Low German beden), Dutch bieden, Old High German biotan (German bieten), Old Norse bjóða (Swedish bjuda (“command, show”)), Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌱𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌽 (anabiudan). The Indo-European root is also the source of Ancient Greek πευθεσθαι (peuthesthai, “ask for”), Sanskrit बोधयित (bodhayita, “wake”), Old Church Slavonic бъдѣти (bŭděti) (Russian будить (buditʹ, “wake”)), Lithuanian budeti (“awake”). See also bid.

Verb

bede (third-person singular simple present bedes, present participle beding, simple past bade, past participle bode or boden)

1. pray, offer, proffer
   • 15th c., “Conspiracio [The Conspiracy]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: […] Oxford University Press, 1897, →OCLC, page 210, lines 208–209:

     Sir, a bargan bede I you, / by it if ye will

     Sir, I offer you a bargain. Buy it if you like.

2. request, demand, order, command, forbid
3. proclaim, declare
   • 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], (please specify the book number), [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC:

     A turnement were best to bede.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

4. present, counsel, advise, rede, exhort
   • 1450, Merlin:

     They of londone […] boden hem to ben lyht of herte.

Derived terms

• misbede

Etymology 3

Unknown?

Noun

bede (plural bedes)

1. (mining) A kind of pickaxe.

References

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 “bede”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

• Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, 1911
• Middle English Dictionary

Anagrams

• Beed, Deeb, beed

Danish

Etymology 1

Via Middle Low German bēye from Latin bēta (“beet”). Compare also German Bete and English beet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /beːðə/, [ˈb̥eðð̩]

Noun

bede c (singular definite beden, plural indefinite beder)

1. beet (the root plant Beta vulgaris)

Declension

Declension of bede

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	bede	beden	beder	bederne
genitive	bedes	bedens	beders	bedernes

References

• “bede,1” in Den Danske Ordbog

Etymology 2

Either the Danish noun derives from a now-archaic verb bede (“to castrate, geld, wether”), which derives from Middle Low German böten, or the noun derives from a Middle Low German noun bete.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /beːðə/, [ˈb̥eðð̩]

Noun

bede c (singular definite beden, plural indefinite beder)

1. wether (a castrated ram)

Declension

Declension of bede

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	bede	beden	beder	bederne
genitive	bedes	bedens	beders	bedernes

References

• “bede,2” in Den Danske Ordbog

Etymology 3

From Old Norse biðja, from Proto-Germanic *bidjaną (“to ask”). Cognate with Swedish be, bedja, English bid, Dutch bidden, and German bitten. The Germanic verb probably goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰedʰ-, cf. Polish żądać (“to demand”) and Ancient Greek θέσσασθαι (théssasthai, “to pray”).

Alternative forms

• be'

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /beːˀ/, [ˈb̥eˀ] or (formal) IPA^(key): /beːðə/, [ˈb̥eðð̩]

Verb

bede (past tense bad, past participle bedt)

1. (transitive) to ask, request (to demand something from someone, with the person as an object and with the preposition om + the thing asked for)
2. (transitive) to beg, entreat, implore (to plead to someone about something, with the person as an object and with the preposition om + the thing asked for)
3. (intransitive) to pray (to address a divinity, with the preposition til + the addressed divinity)

Conjugation

Inflection of bede

	present	past
simple	beder	bad
perfect	har bedt	havde bedt
passive	bedes	(archaic) bades
participle	bedende	bedt
imperative	bed	—
infinitive	bede	—
auxiliary verb	have	—
gerund	beden	—

References

• “bede,3” in Den Danske Ordbog

Etymology 4

From Old Norse beita (“to let graze, rest”), from Proto-Germanic *baitijaną, cognate with Norwegian beite (English bait is borrowed from Old Norse). A causative of the verb *bītaną (“to bite”) (cf. Danish bide).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /beːðə/, [ˈb̥eðð̩]

Verb

bede (past tense bedede, past participle bedet)

1. (dated) to make a halt, take a rest

Conjugation

Inflection of bede

	present	past
simple	beder	bedede
perfect	har bedet	havde bedet
passive	bedes	bededes
participle	bedende	bedet
imperative	bed	—
infinitive	bede	—
auxiliary verb	have	—
gerund	beden	—

References

• “bede,4” in Den Danske Ordbog

Etymology 5

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /beːðə/, [ˈb̥eðð̩]

Noun

bede n pl

1. indefinite plural of bed

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch bede, from Old Dutch beda. See the verb bidden.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbeː.də/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: be‧de
• Rhymes: -eːdə

Noun

bede f (plural beden or bedes, diminutive bedetje n)

1. plea
2. (historical) a tax that was presented to lower-level governments as a petition for a lump sum; raising the tax was left to the lower-level governments
3. (archaic) a prayer

Derived terms

• bededag
• bedehuis
• bedevaart
• smeekbede
• voorbede

Middle Dutch

Etymology 1

From Old Dutch beda, from Proto-Germanic *bedō.

Noun

bēde f

1. prayer
2. plea, request

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Dutch: bede

Etymology 2

Determiner

bêde

1. (Flemish) Alternative form of beide

Inflection

This determiner needs an inflection-table template.

Further reading

• “bede”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “bede (II)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page II

Middle English

Alternative forms

• bed, beed, beode, bode, boede
• (early) ȝebed, ibæd, ibed

Etymology

From Old English ġebedu, plural of ġebed (“prayer”), from Proto-West Germanic *gabed; reinforced by Old English bedu (“request”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛːd(ə)/

Noun

bede (plural bedes or beden)

1. prayer (the act of supplication)
2. prayer (a supplication)
3. A command or order.
4. A bead from a rosary.
5. (by extension) Any bead.

Related terms

• bedeman

Descendants

• English: bead (bede)
• Scots: bead, bede, beid

References

• “bēd(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “ibēd(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Danish bede.

Verb

bede (imperative bed, present tense beder, passive bedes, simple past bad, past participle bedt, present participle bedende)

1. (archaic) to ask; request
2. to pray

Synonyms

• be

References

• “bede” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse biðja.

Pronunciation 1

• IPA^(key): /²beːə/

Verb

bede (present tense bed, past tense bad, past participle bede or bedd or bedt, present participle bedande, imperative bed)

1. Alternative form of beda

Pronunciation 2

• IPA^(key): /²bɛːə/

Participle

bede

1. past participle of beda

References

• “bede” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old High German

Alternative forms

• beide

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *bai, whence also Old Norse báðir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbeː.de/

Adjective

bēde

1. both

Descendants

• Middle High German: beide, bēde
  • German: beide
  • Yiddish: ביידע (beyde)

References

• Joseph Wright, An Old High-German Primer with Grammar, Notes and Glossary, Oxford, 1888, p. 143.

Old Irish

Verb

bede

1. second-person plural present subjunctive of is

Pennsylvania German

Etymology

Compare German beten. Related to English bead.

Verb

bede

1. to pray

Serbo-Croatian

Noun

bede (Cyrillic spelling беде)

1. genitive singular of beda