Bedside
nounThe space or position immediately beside a bed, especially that of someone who is ill.
How to spell bedside
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce bedside
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does bedside mean?
- nounThe space or position immediately beside a bed, especially that of someone who is ill.
Bedside in a sentence
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The nurse kept a chart at the patient's bedside throughout the night.
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A glass of water and a lamp sat on the bedside table.
Where does bedside come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is a transparent English compound formed from two very old native words: 'bed', which comes from the Old English 'bedd' meaning a sleeping place or a garden plot, and 'side', from the Old English 'side' meaning the flank of the body or an edge. Both elements trace back to Germanic roots, with 'bedd' linked to words meaning a dug or hollowed resting place and 'side' originally describing the long edge of something. The two were joined to name the space immediately alongside a bed, a use recorded in English by the 1300s. The compound gained a particular medical flavour over time, since the area beside a sick person's bed became the focus of nursing and doctoring, giving us the familiar 'bedside manner'. Because both parts are spelled exactly as they sound and are joined without a hyphen, the only real trap is remembering to write it as one solid word.
How the word is built
- bed (place to sleep)
- side (edge, area beside)
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