The Curious History of Bead

The Curious History of Bead The Curious History of Bead The Curious History of Bead By Maeve Maddox You may have heard the expression to draw a bead, meaning to take aim. A hunter, for example, draws a bead on the quarry. The expression, used both literally and figuratively, is popular with headline writers Connecticut gunman drew bead on bosses Kiefer Sutherland and 24 draw a bead on a feature film HP and Microsoft Draw a Bead on Cisco The bead in this expression comes from the small metal knob that forms the front sight of a gun. The word bead attached to this knob because of its resemblance to the kind of bead most of us probably think of when we hear the word: A small perforated body, spherical or otherwise, of glass, amber, metal, wood, etc., used as an ornament, either strung in a series to form a necklace, bracelet, etc., or sewn upon various fabrics. This general sense of bead derived in turn from rosary beads, the little markers strung together for the purpose of helping a worshipper count prayers. Originally, beads were not the little objects on the string, but the prayers being said. Bead in this sense is a cognate of German bitte, a word that is used to make a request. Someone praying with a rosary was said to be telling his beads, that is, counting his prayers. Another meaning of the verb to tell is to count. (The bank teller counts out your money.) Historically, wealthy patrons would pay people to pray for them on a regular basis. These professionals were called beadsmen or beadswomen. Keats begins his poem St. Agnes Eve with this evocation of a harsh winters evening: St. Agnes EveAh, bitter chill it was! †¨ The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold; †¨ The hare limpd trembling through the frozen grass, †¨And silent was the flock in woolly fold: †¨Numb were the Beadsmans fingers, while he told †¨His rosary, and while his frosted breath, †¨Like pious incense from a censer old, †¨Seemd taking flight for heaven†¦ An earlier spelling of bead was bede, from Old English gebed, prayer. The OE verb biddan meant to pray as well as to ask. By the late 14th century, the word bede/bead had attached to the objects on which the prayers were told or counted. The expression to draw a bead on is an obvious headline choice when the topic is something like gun control, Critics Draw A Bead On State House Gun Ban but I wonder if the writer who came up with this one about the popularity of rosaries with non-Catholic soldiers in Iraq realized just how clever it is: Worshippers draw bead on rosaries Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Whimsical Words50 Synonyms for "Assistant"Punctuation Is Powerful