bed

Meanings

Noun

• A piece of furniture, usually flat and soft, on which to rest or sleep.
• A place, or flat surface or layer, on which something else rests or is laid.
• A layer or surface.

Verb

• Senses relating to a bed as a place for resting or sleeping.
• Senses relating to a bed as a place or layer on which something else rests or is laid.

Origin

• From Middle English bed, bedde, from Old English bedd, from Proto-West Germanic *badi, from Proto-Germanic *badją.
• Cognate with North Frisian baad, beed, Saterland Frisian Bääd, West Frisian bêd, Dutch bed, Low German Bedd, German Bett, Swedish bädd, Icelandic beður.
• The Proto-Germanic term may in turn be from Proto-Indo-European *bʰedʰh₂- with various theories explaining the development in meaning. If it is, the term is also cognate with Ancient Greek βοθυρος ("pit"), Latin fossa ("ditch"), Latvian bedre ("hole"), Welsh bedd ("grave"), Breton bez ("grave"); and probably also Russian бодать ("to butt, gore").