Bede
name, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Prayer, request, supplication
"Thus originated the alms-(or bede-) houses so frequently met with in the retired villages of England."
- 2 Rosary.
"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."
- 1 pray, offer, proffer
"Sir, a bargan bede I you, / by it if ye will"
- 2 request, demand, order, command, forbid
- 3 proclaim, declare
"A turnement were best to bede."
- 4 present, counsel, advise, rede, exhort
"They of londone […] boden hem to ben lyht of herte."
- 1 An English monk, historian and theologian from Northumbria who lived from c. 673 to 753, commonly known as the Venerable Bede.
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"The Venerable Bede is regarded as one of the most important chroniclers of the early Middle Ages."
Etymology
From Middle English bēde (“prayer, request, supplication, order, command, rosary, bead”), from Old English ġebed (“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.
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 bieden, 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 πεύθομαι (peúthomai, “ask for”), Sanskrit बोधयति (bodhayati, “wake”), Old Church Slavonic бъдѣти (bŭděti) (Russian будить (buditʹ, “wake”)), Lithuanian budeti (“awake”). See also bid.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.