abed

Etymology

It is formed from English a- + bed,^[2][3][4][5] where a- is the reduced form of the preposition on.^[6][5][7] In Middle English it was abedde, also written apart as on bedde,^[8][9] continuing an Old English phrase, Old English on bedde (“in bed”), with the dative of bedd (“bed”).^[8][7][6] Johnson took the a as standing for at.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

In bed: about 1300, in the Otho manuscript of Laȝamon's Brut, a text perhaps composed before 1200,^[2][9] where one manuscript has abedde and the other on bedde.^[9] Etymonline dates it to about 1200,^[7] and the Middle English Dictionary already has the unjoined o bedde in the Ormulum of about 1175.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word was used both of sleep and rest and of love affairs: Chaucer and Gower have lovers lying abedde.^[9] By the 15th century it also meant kept in bed by illness or injury.^[2][9] From 1523 to bring abed meant to deliver a woman of a child.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "in bed", quoting Sidney.^[10] The OED now calls both main senses somewhat archaic,^[2] and Collins and the Shorter Oxford label the word archaic;^[11][3] Weekley called it dialect.^[12] It survives in compounds such as slugabed and lie-abed.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – in bed.^[2][9]
• c. 1475 – in bed and unable to get up because of illness or injury.^[2][9]
• 1523 – to bring abed, to deliver a woman of a child (now archaic and rare).^[2]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (archaic) In bed: The children were still abed when the post arrived.^[11][8][2]
2. (archaic) Kept in bed by illness; laid up: sick abed with a fever.^[3][2][13]

Word family

• lie-abed
• slugabed

Related words

• bed
• asleep
• aboard
• afoot

Usage notes

In the dialects of the English midland and southern counties it was still widely used around 1900 for "in bed" and "confined to bed by illness".^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)