bed

Forms

bed n (plural bedden, diminutive bedje n)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle Dutch bedde, inherited from Old Dutch beddi, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *badi, inherited from Proto-Germanic *badją (“bed, bedding”).^[2][1][3][4] The same word is Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌳𐌹 (badi), Old Norse beðr “bolster, bedding”, Old English bedd (modern English bed), Old Frisian bed, Old Saxon beddi and Old High German betti, whose modern descendants are German Bett “bed” and, for a garden bed, Beet.^[2][5][4] It was borrowed very early into Finnish as patja (“feather bed, cushion”).^[2][6]

Outside Germanic no certain cognates are known.^[5][7] The usual view links it with Latin fodiō (“to dig”), Lithuanian bedù (“I dig”) and a Welsh word for “grave”, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰodʰ-, which would make the bed a dug-out sleeping place, the same as an animal's lair.^[2][6] De Vries rejected this, since the Germanic peoples did not sleep in pits, and preferred a link with bad, so that the bed was “the warm place”;^[5][8] De Vries and De Tollenaere follow him.^[5][8] The EWN finds the digging etymology quite possible for the garden bed, though that sense may itself be a transferred one.^[2] Kroonen reconstructs *bʰodʰ-io-.^[4] Grimm and Kern had connected bed with bidden, from a root meaning “to press”.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word first appears in the 10th-century Wachtendonck Psalms, in the compound betekamere “bedchamber”.^[2] The Leiden Willeram of about 1100 has it alone, in the Song of Songs: Vnse bedde is wole gebloomed, “our bed is well flowered”.^[3][10] In Middle Dutch it is first found in a Ghent rule of 1236 forbidding the brothers to sleep on feather beds, and in the Bernardus glossary of 1240.^[11][2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle Dutch bedde was also the mattress or cushion, and the marriage bed and marriage itself: children van witteghen bedde were born in wedlock (1276).^[11][12] Een bedde maken was in the Middle Ages the work of male, not female, servants, and te bedde vallen meant to fall ill.^[12] In early modern Dutch bed was the stuffed sack laid on the bedstead, and bed en bulster stood for all of one's bedding.^[9]

The garden bed is recorded from the middle of the 16th century, in een beddeken bezaeyt met violieren “a little bed sown with stocks”.^[2] Van Dale also gives the bed in a care home or hospital, the lair of game, the foundation layer of a road and the bed of a river.^[13] In Suriname a bed was the smallest unit of a plantation field, from 1786.^[14] Met het verkeerde been uit bed stappen, to be in a bad mood, goes back to the 17th century.^[15] The old phrase bed, bad en brood became a political catchword in 2015, for basic shelter for rejected asylum seekers.^[16]

Dutch passed the word to Frisian, to dialects of French (“mattress”), to Indonesian, to Negerhollands, Berbice Dutch, Sranan Tongo (Sranan Tongo bedi) and Papiamentu, and through Afrikaans or English to Xhosa and Zulu.^[17][1]

Timeline

• 901–1000 – The Wachtendonck Psalms have the compound betekamere “bedchamber”.^[2]
• c. 1100 – Bedde appears alone in the Leiden Willeram.^[3][10]
• 1236 – A Ghent rule forbids the brothers feather beds.^[11]
• 1240 – The Bernardus glossary has bedde.^[2]
• 1276 – Children van witteghen bedde “of a lawful bed” are mentioned.^[11]
• mid-16th century – The garden bed is first recorded.^[2]
• 1786 – Bed is recorded as a unit of plantation land in Suriname.^[14]
• 2015 – Bed, bad en brood becomes a political catchword.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. bed, a piece of furniture for sleeping on, with its mattress and bedding: De kinderen moeten om acht uur in bed liggen.^[13][1]
2. A bed in a hospital or care home, as a place for a patient.^[13][18]
3. The lair of game.^[13]
4. The foundation layer of a road; a layer or substratum.^[13][1]
5. A garden bed, a marked-off or raised patch where flowers or crops are grown.^[13][1]
6. The bed of a river.^[13][1]

Word family

• bedstee
• kraambed
• beddengoed
• bedgebonden
• bedgenoot
• bedkamer
• bedlamp
• bedleger
• bedplassen
• bedtijd
• bedvriend
• bedvriendin
• bedwants
• bloembed
• dekbed
• bedding
• hunebed

Related words

• English bed
• German Bett

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Philippa, Marlies; Debrabandere, Frans; Quak, Arend; Schoonheim, Tanneke; Sijs, Nicoline van der (2003–2009), Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands, 4 vols., Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press; online via etymologiebank.nl
3. ^ a b c Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org
4. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Vries, Jan de (1971), Nederlands etymologisch woordenboek, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ a b Franck, Johannes; Wijk, Nicolaas van (1912), Franck's Etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal, 2nd ed., 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff
7. ^ Veen, P. A. F. van; Sijs, Nicoline van der (1997), Etymologisch woordenboek: de herkomst van onze woorden, 2nd ed., Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Lexicografie
8. ^ a b Vries, Jan de; Tollenaere, Félicien de (2004), Etymologisch woordenboek: onze woorden, hun oorsprong en ontwikkeling, 23rd ed., Utrecht: Het Spectrum, p. 62
9. ^ a b Vries, Matthias de; Winkel, L. A. te, et al. (1882–1998), Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, 29 vols., 's-Gravenhage / Leiden: Nijhoff / Sijthoff / SDU; supplement 2001; gtb.ivdnt.org
10. ^ a b Sijs, Nicoline van der (2001), Chronologisch woordenboek: de ouderdom en herkomst van onze woorden en betekenissen, Amsterdam / Antwerpen: Veen
11. ^ a b c d Pijnenburg, W. J. J., et al. (2001), Vroegmiddelnederlands woordenboek: woordenboek van het Nederlands van de dertiende eeuw in hoofdzaak op basis van het Corpus-Gysseling, Leiden: Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie; gtb.ivdnt.org
12. ^ a b Verwijs, Eelco; Verdam, Jacob (1885–1929), Middelnederlandsch woordenboek, 11 vols., 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff; gtb.ivdnt.org
13. ^ a b c d e f g Van Dale Groot woordenboek hedendaags Nederlands (2014), Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Uitgevers
14. ^ a b Donselaar, J. van (1989), Woordenboek van het Surinaams-Nederlands, Muiderberg: Coutinho
15. ^ Stoett, F. A. (1923–1925), Nederlandsche spreekwoorden, spreekwijzen, uitdrukkingen en gezegden, 4th ed., 3 vols., Zutphen: Thieme
16. ^ a b Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; anw.ivdnt.org
17. ^ Sijs, Nicoline van der (2010), Nederlandse woorden wereldwijd, Den Haag: Sdu; with additions from the Uitleenwoordenbank (2015)
18. ^ WikiWoordenboek (Dutch Wiktionary), nl.wiktionary.org