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beadle

 - 6 dictionary results

bea⋅dle

  [beed-l]
Use beadle in a Sentence
–noun
1. a parish officer having various subordinate duties, as keeping order during services, waiting on the rector, etc.
2. sexton (def. 2).
Origin:
bef. 1000; ME bedel, dial. (SE) var. of bidel, OE bydel apparitor, herald (c. G Büttel), equiv. to bud- (weak s. of bēodan to command) + -il n. suffix

Bea⋅dle

  [beed-l]
–noun
George Wells, 1903–1989, U.S. biologist and educator: Nobel prize for medicine 1958.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To beadle
bea·dle   (bēd'l)   
n.  A minor parish official formerly employed in an English church to usher and keep order during services.

[Middle English bedel, herald (from Old English bydel) and from Old French bedel (from Medieval Latin bedellus, from Old High German butil; see bheudh- in Indo-European roots).]
Bea·dle   (bēd'l)   
American biologist. He shared a 1958 Nobel Prize for discovering how genes transmit hereditary characteristics.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

beadle 
O.E. bydel "herald, messenger from an authority," from beodan "to proclaim" (see bid). Sense of "warrant officer, tipstaff" was in late O.E.; that of "petty parish officer," which has given the job a bad reputation, is from 1594.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Beadle Bea·dle (bēd'l), George Wells. 1903-1989.

American biologist. He shared a 1958 Nobel Prize for discovering how genes transmit hereditary characteristics.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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