bedside

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bedside, also beddes side,^[2][3] from the genitive of bed and side,^[4][2][3] originally in prepositional phrases such as “at one's bed's side”.^[4][5] According to the OED, the one-word form is partly a contraction of that phrase and partly re-formed from English bed + side, especially in attributive uses.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The space beside a person's bed, often that of someone ill or dying: the first record is in John Gower's Confessio Amantis (before 1393).^[4] OED 1989 dated it to about 1374,^[6] and Etymonline finds the two-word beddes side in the late 14th century and bedsyde from the mid-15th.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its first meaning, used above all of attendance on someone confined to bed by illness or approaching death.^[4][3] From the late 18th century it was used before other nouns: Merriam-Webster dates the adjective, of something done at a patient's bedside, to 1787,^[2] while OED 1989 dated such uses as bedside book and bedside manner to 1837.^[6] The phrase bedside manner, the way a doctor behaves towards a patient, is recorded from 1848 in Etymonline's dating;^[3] Tréguer found it in 1849 and showed that in the late 19th century a good bedside manner was expected above all of a fashionable ladies' doctor, as a Punch cartoon of 1884 mocked.^[7] A bedside book is one suitable for reading in bed, often light reading.^[5][2]

Timeline

• before 1393 – the space beside a bed, in John Gower.^[4] OED 1989 dated it to about 1374.^[6]
• 1787 – adjective, done or carried out at a patient's bedside.^[2]
• 1837 – used before other nouns, as bedside book.^[6]
• 1848 – bedside manner.^[3] Tréguer found the phrase in 1849.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The side of a bed, or the space beside it, especially that of someone who is ill or dying: Her family gathered at her bedside.^[2][8][4]

Adjective

1. Placed or kept beside a bed: a bedside lamp.^[8][5]
2. Done or given at the bedside of a patient: bedside care.^[2][9]
3. Suitable for reading in bed, especially light or easy reading: a bedside anthology.^[2][5]
4. bedside manner: the way a doctor behaves towards a patient.^[5][8]

Word family

• bedside manner

Related words

• bed
• side
• bedridden

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Tréguer, Pascal, Word Histories, wordhistories.net, p. "‘Bedside manner’: originally applied to fashionable ladies’ doctors", 1 August 2018
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt