Etymology

beadle

bead·le
B3E1A1D2L1E1

Today it means: A parish constable, a uniformed minor (lay) official, who ushers and keeps order. Full definition →

Middle English bedel, bidel ← Old English bydel ← Proto-West Germanic *budil
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*budilaz“herald”
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*budil
  3. Old English · inherited frombydel“warrant officer, apparitor”
  4. Middle English · inherited frombedel, bidel
  5. English todaybeadle

From Middle English bedel, bidel, from Old English bydel (“warrant officer, apparitor”), from Proto-West Germanic *budil, from Proto-Germanic *budilaz (“herald”), equivalent to bid + -le. Cognate with Dutch beul, German Büttel. More at bid.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.