bedel
nounEtymology Borrowed from Medieval Latin pedellus, bedellus, bidellus, from Middle English bedel; cognate with beadle.
1
Historical An administrative official at universities in several European countries, often with a policiary function at the time when universities had their own jurisdiction over students.
- Oxford today has four bedels, representing Divinity, Law, Medicine, and Arts.
- Next came the bedels and minor-bedels of all the Faculties, who by some accident were so jumbled together, that it was impossible to determine or arrange any order of precedence.[…] These bedels or greffiers were jolly robustious souls, bending beneath the weight of their ponderous silver maces, and attired in gowns of black, blue, violet, or dark red, each colour denoting the Faculty to which the wearer pertained.1837, William Harrison Ainsworth, “The Rector”, in Crichton, volume I, London: Richard Bentley, page 59:
- Derived terms
- bedelship