Beadle Definition

bēdl

noun

A minor parish official formerly employed in an English church to usher and keep order during services.

American Heritage

A minor parish officer in the Church of England, who kept order in church.

Webster's New World

A messenger of a law court.

Webster's New World

A parish constable, a uniformed minor (lay) official, who ushers and keeps order.

Wiktionary

(Scotland, ecclesiastic) An attendant to the minister.

Wiktionary

Synonyms:

pronoun

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Beadle

Singular:

beadle

Plural:

beadles

From Middle English bedel, bidel, from Old English bydel (“warrant officer, apparitor”), from Proto-Germanic *budilaz (“herald”), from Proto-Germanic *beudaną (“to present, offer”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewdʰ- (“to comprehend, make aware”). Akin to Old High German butil (“beadle”), (whence German Büttel), Old English bēodan (“to announce”). More at bid.

From Wiktionary
Middle English bedel herald (from Old English bydel) and from Old French bedel (from Medieval Latin bedellus) (from Old High German butil bheudh- in Indo-European roots)

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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