different between bed vs scale

English

Etymology

From Middle English bed, bedde, from Old English bedd (“bed, couch, resting-place; garden-bed, plot”), from Proto-Germanic *badj? (“plot, grave, resting-place, bed”), perhaps (if originally "dug sleeping-place") from Proto-Indo-European *b?ed?- (“to dig”). Cognate with Scots bed, bede (“bed”), North Frisian baad, beed (“bed”), West Frisian bêd (“bed”), Low German Bedd, Dutch bed (“bed”), German Bett (“bed”), Danish bed, Swedish bädd (“bed”), Icelandic beður (“bed”), and (through Proto-Indo-European, if the above etymology is correct) with Ancient Greek ??????? (bothuros, “pit”), Latin fossa (“ditch”), Latvian bedre (“hole”), Welsh bedd (“grave”), Breton bez (“grave”); and probably also Russian ?????? (bodat?, “to butt, to gore”).

The traditional etymology as a derivation from the Proto-Indo-European verb for 'to dig' has been doubted, arguing that there are (allegedly) few, if any, cultures known to dig out beds, rather than to build "pads". However, what the Germanic word originally referred to is not known with precision, and it notably has the additional meaning "flower-bed, plot", which is preserved in English and several other modern Germanic languages, but present in older stages as well. Additionally, the term may have originally been used in the sense of a "burial plot" for laying those who were asleep in death, and from there extended also to symbolise a place where one slept in general (In Modern German, two separate words exist, Bett being the normal term, the rare variant Beet having been adopted for “flower-bed”). Perhaps the word originally referred to dug sleeping-places of animals, compare (with the inverse semantic development) lair from Old English le?er (“couch, bed”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /b?d/
• (AAVE, some speakers) IPA^(key): [be?]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /bed/
• Rhymes: -?d

Noun

bed (plural beds)

1. A piece of furniture, usually flat and soft, on which to rest or sleep.
   1. A prepared spot in which to spend the night.

   2. (usually after a preposition) One's place of sleep or rest.

   3. (uncountable, usually after a preposition) Sleep; rest; getting to sleep.

   4. (uncountable, usually after a preposition) The time for going to sleep or resting in bed; bedtime.

   5. (uncountable) Time spent in a bed.
   6. (figuratively) Marriage.

      • George, the eldest son of his second bed.

   7. (figuratively, uncountable) Sexual activity.

2. A place, or flat surface or layer, on which something else rests or is laid.
   1. The bottom of a body of water, such as an ocean, sea, lake, or river. [from later 16^thc.]

   2. An area where a large number of oysters, mussels, other sessile shellfish, or a large amount of seaweed is found.
      • 1941, Emily Carr, Klee Wyck, Chapter 18, [1]

        I knew that there were kelp beds and reefs which could rip the bottoms from boats down in Skedans Bay.

   3. A garden plot.

      • Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.

   4. A foundation or supporting surface formed of a fluid.

   5. The superficial earthwork, or ballast, of a railroad.
   7. The platform of a truck, trailer, railcar, or other vehicle that supports the load to be hauled.

      Synonym: tray

   8. A shaped piece of timber to hold a cask clear of a ship’s floor; a pallet.
   9. (printing, dated) The flat part of the press, on which the form is laid.
   10. (computing) The flat surface of a scanner on which a document is placed to be scanned.
   11. A piece of music, normally instrumental, over which a radio DJ talks.
   12. (darts) Any of the sections of a dartboard with a point value, delimited by a wire.
   13. (trampoline) The taut surface of a trampoline.
3. (heading) A layer or surface.
   1. A deposit of ore, coal, etc.
   2. (geology) The smallest division of a geologic formation or stratigraphic rock series marked by well-defined divisional planes (bedding planes) separating it from layers above and below.

      Synonyms: layer, stratum

   3. (masonry) The horizontal surface of a building stone.

   4. (masonry) The lower surface of a brick, slate, or tile.

      (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

   5. (masonry) A course of stone or brick in a wall.

Usage notes

Sense 1. To prepare a bed is usually to "make" the bed, or (US, Southern) to "spread" the bed, the verb spread probably having been developed from bedspread.Like many nouns denoting places where people spend time, bed requires no article after certain prepositions: hence in bed (“lying in a bed”), go to bed (“get into a bed”), and so on. The forms in a bed, etc. do exist, but tend to imply mere presence in the bed, without it being for the purpose of sleep.

See also Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take

Derived terms

Descendants

• Chichewa: bedi
• Chuukese: pet
• Japanese: ??? (beddo)

Translations

See bed/translations § Noun.

Verb

bed (third-person singular simple present beds, present participle bedding, simple past and past participle bedded)

1. Senses relating to a bed as a place for resting or sleeping.
   1. (intransitive) To go to bed.
   2. (transitive) To place in a bed.

      • For she was not only publicly contracted, but stated as a bride, and solemnly bedded, and after she was laid, there came in Maximilian's ambassador with letters of procuration

   3. To put oneself to sleep. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
   4. (transitive) To furnish with a bed or bedding.
   5. (transitive, intransitive) To have sexual intercourse with. [from early 14th c.]

      Synonyms: coitize, go to bed with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

      • 1730, William Forbes, The Institutes of the Law of Scotland (page 121)

        And he who lies with another Man's Wife after she is married, even before her Husband had bedded with her, is guilty of Adultery, […]

2. Senses relating to a bed as a place or layer on which something else rests or is laid.
   1. (transitive) To lay or put in any hollow place, or place of rest and security, surrounded or enclosed; to embed.
      • 1810/1835, William Wordsworth, Guide to the Lakes

        Among all chains or clusters of mountains where large bodies of still water are bedded.
   2. (transitive) To set in a soft matrix, as paving stones in sand, or tiles in cement.
   3. (transitive) To set out (plants) in a garden bed.
   4. (transitive) To dress or prepare the surface of (stone) so it can serve as a bed.
   5. (transitive) To lay flat; to lay in order; to place in a horizontal or recumbent position.
   6. To settle, as machinery.

Derived terms

• bed down
• embed

Translations

See bed/translations § Verb.

Further reading

• bed on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• BDE, DBE, DEB, Deb, Deb., EBD, Edb., deb

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch bed, from Middle Dutch bedde, from Old Dutch bedde, from Proto-Germanic *badj?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b?t/

Noun

bed (plural beddens, diminutive bedjie)

1. bed

   Synonym: kooi

Breton

Alternative forms

• béd (Skolveurieg)

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *b?d, from Proto-Celtic *bitus. Cognates include Welsh byd and Cornish bys.

Noun

bed m (plural bedoù)

1. world
2. universe

Mutation

References

• Ian Press (1986) A grammar of modern Breton, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, ?ISBN, page 322

Danish

Etymology 1

From German Beet (“bed for plants”), originally the same word as Bett (“bed for sleeping”), from Proto-Germanic *badj?, cognate with English bed and Swedish bädd.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?b?eð]

Noun

bed n (singular definite bedet, plural indefinite bede)

1. bed (a garden plot)

Inflection

Etymology 2

From Old Norse beit f (“pasturage”), Old Norse beita f (“bait”), from Proto-Germanic *bait? (“food, bait”), cognate with German Beize (“mordant”) (whence Danish bejdse).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?b?e?ð], [?b?eð?]

Noun

bed (definitive plural bedene)

1. (obsolete) pasturage

   only in the expression: gå nogen i bedene "poach on someone's preserves"

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the main entry.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?b?e?ð], [?b?eð?]

Verb

bed

1. past tense of bide

Etymology 4

See the etymology of the main entry.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?b?e?], (solemnly) IPA^(key): [?b?e?ð], [?b?eð?]

Verb

bed

1. imperative of bede

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch bedde, from Old Dutch bedde, from Proto-Germanic *badj?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b?t/
• Hyphenation: bed
• Rhymes: -?t

Noun

bed n (plural bedden, diminutive bedje n)

1. bed (furniture for sleeping)
2. (garden, agriculture) patch, bed
3. layer, often a substratum
4. bed of a body of water
   • 1950, Willy van der Heide, Drie jongens op een onbewoond eiland, Stenvert.

     Op een gegeven ogenblik stieten ze op een uitgedroogde beekbedding; het bed van de beek was naakte lava.

Derived terms

Descendants

• Afrikaans: bed

Kriol

Etymology 1

From English bird.

Noun

bed

1. bird

Etymology 2

From English bed.

Noun

bed

1. bed

Northern Kurdish

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?d

Adjective

bed

1. bad

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From German Beet

Noun

bed n (definite singular bedet, indefinite plural bed, definite plural beda or bedene)

1. (horticulture) a bed (for plants)

Derived terms

• blomsterbed

Etymology 2

Verb

bed

1. imperative of bede

References

• “bed” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

From German Beet.

Noun

bed n (definite singular bedet, indefinite plural bed, definite plural beda)

1. (horticulture) a bed (for plants)

Derived terms

• blomsterbed

Etymology 2

Verb

bed

1. present tense of beda
2. imperative of beda

Etymology 3

From Old Norse beðr.

Noun

bed m (definite singular beden, indefinite plural bedar, definite plural bedane)

1. form removed with the spelling reform of 2012; superseded by bedd

References

• “bed” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bed/

Noun

bed n

1. Alternative form of bedd

Old Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b?eð/

Etymology 1

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

·bed

1. third-person singular past subjunctive of at·tá

Alternative forms

• ·beth

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

bed

1. inflection of is:
   1. third-person singular past subjunctive
   2. third-person singular/second-person plural imperative
   3. third-person singular conditional relative

Alternative forms

• bad (3 sg. past subj.; 3 sg. and 2 pl. imperative)

Mutation

Old Saxon

Alternative forms

• beddi

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *badj? (“dug sleeping-place”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?ed?- (“to dig”). Cognate with Old Frisian bed, Old English bedd, Dutch bed, Old High German betti, Old Norse beðr, Gothic ???????????????? (badi). The Indo-European root is also the source of Ancient Greek ??????? (bothuros, “pit”), Latin fossa (“ditch”), Latvian bedre (“hole”), Welsh bedd, Breton bez (“grave”).

Noun

bed n

1. bed
   • (Heliand, verse 2309)

Declension

Descendants

• Middle Low German: bedde
  • Low German: Bett
    • Dutch Low Saxon: bedde
    • German Low German: Bedd
      • Plautdietsch: Bad, Bed
  • ? Icelandic: beddi

Swedish

Verb

bed (contracted be)

1. imperative of bedja.

Volapük

Etymology

Borrowed from English bed and German Bett.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bed/

Noun

bed (nominative plural beds)

1. bed

Declension

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ske?l/, [ske???]
• Hyphenation: scale
• Rhymes: -e?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English scale, from Latin sc?la, usually in plural sc?lae (“a flight of steps, stairs, staircase, ladder”), for *scadla, from scand? (“I climb”); see scan, ascend, descend, etc. Doublet of scala.

Noun

scale (plural scales)

1. (obsolete) A ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending.
2. An ordered, usually numerical sequence used for measurement, means of assigning a magnitude.

   Please rate your experience on a scale from 1 to 10.

   The magnitude of an earthquake is measured on the open-ended Richter scale.

3. Size; scope.

   There are some who question the scale of our ambitions.

4. The ratio of depicted distance to actual distance.

   This map uses a scale of 1:10.

5. A line or bar associated with a drawing, used to indicate measurement when the image has been magnified or reduced.
6. (music) A series of notes spanning an octave, tritave, or pseudo-octave, used to make melodies.
7. A mathematical base for a numeral system; radix.

   the decimal scale; the binary scale

8. Gradation; succession of ascending and descending steps and degrees; progressive series; scheme of comparative rank or order.
9. A standard amount of money to be received by a performer or writer, negotiated by a union.

   Sally wasn't the star of the show, so she was glad to be paid scale.

Hyponyms

• (earthquake): Mercalli scale, Palermo scale, Richter scale
• (economy): wage scale

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ???? (suk?ru)

Translations

See also

• degree
• ordinal variable

References

• scale on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

scale (third-person singular simple present scales, present participle scaling, simple past and past participle scaled)

2. (transitive) To change the size of something whilst maintaining proportion; especially to change a process in order to produce much larger amounts of the final product.

   We should scale that up by a factor of 10.

3. (transitive) To climb to the top of.

   Hilary and Norgay were the first known to have scaled Everest.

   • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter IX

     At last I came to the great barrier-cliffs; and after three days of mad effort--of maniacal effort--I scaled them. I built crude ladders; I wedged sticks in narrow fissures; I chopped toe-holds and finger-holds with my long knife; but at last I scaled them. Near the summit I came upon a huge cavern.

   • 1932, Dorothy L Sayers, Have his Carcase, Chapter 1.

     A solitary rock is always attractive. All right-minded people feel an overwhelming desire to scale and sit upon it.

4. (intransitive, computing) To tolerate significant increases in throughput or other potentially limiting factors.

   That architecture won't scale to real-world environments.

5. (transitive) To weigh, measure or grade according to a scale or system.

Hyponyms

• scale back
• scale down
• scale up

Related terms

• scaling ladder

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English scale, from Old French escale, from Frankish and/or Old High German skala, from Proto-Germanic *skal?. Cognate with Old English s?ealu (“shell, husk”), whence the modern doublet shale. Further cognate with Dutch schaal, German Schale, French écale. Also related to English shell, French écaille, Italian scaglia.

Noun

scale (plural scales)

1. Part of an overlapping arrangement of many small, flat and hard pieces of keratin covering the skin of an animal, particularly a fish or reptile.

1. A small piece of pigmented chitin, many of which coat the wings of a butterfly or moth to give them their color.
2. A flake of skin of an animal afflicted with dermatitis.
3. Part of an overlapping arrangement of many small, flat and hard protective layers forming a pinecone that flare when mature to release pine nut seeds.
4. The flaky material sloughed off heated metal.
5. Scale mail (as opposed to chain mail).
6. Limescale.
7. A scale insect.
8. The thin metallic side plate of the handle of a pocketknife.

Derived terms

• antiscalant
• criticola scale

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ???? (suk?ru)

Translations

Verb

scale (third-person singular simple present scales, present participle scaling, simple past and past participle scaled)

1. (transitive) To remove the scales of.

   Please scale that fish for dinner.

   Synonym: descale

2. (intransitive) To become scaly; to produce or develop scales.

   The dry weather is making my skin scale.

3. (transitive) To strip or clear of scale; to descale.

   to scale the inside of a boiler

4. (transitive) To take off in thin layers or scales, as tartar from the teeth; to pare off, as a surface.
   • 1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth

     if all the mountains and hills were scaled, and the earth made even

5. (intransitive) To separate and come off in thin layers or laminae.

   Some sandstone scales by exposure.
6. (Britain, Scotland, dialect) To scatter; to spread.
7. (transitive) To clean, as the inside of a cannon, by the explosion of a small quantity of powder.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Totten to this entry?)

Translations

Etymology 3

From Old Norse skál (“bowl”). Compare Danish skål (“bowl, cup”), Dutch schaal; German Schale; Old High German sc?la; Gothic ???????????????????????? (skalja, “tile, brick”), Old English scealu (“cup; shell”). Cognate with scale, as in Etymology 2.

Noun

scale (plural scales)

1. A device to measure mass or weight.

   After the long, lazy winter I was afraid to get on the scale.

1. Either of the pans, trays, or dishes of a balance or scales.

Usage notes

• The noun is often used in the plural to denote a single device (originally a pair of scales had two pans).

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ???? (suk?ru)

Translations

Further reading

• scale up on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• scale in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• scale in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• -clase, Salce, acles, alecs, claes, laces, selca

Italian

Noun

scale f pl

1. plural of scala

Anagrams

• calse, salce

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old French escale.

Alternative forms

• skale, scalle

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ska?l(?)/

Noun

scale (plural scales)

1. flake

Descendants

• English: scale
• Yola: skaulès (plural)

References

• “sc?le, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

From Latin sc?la.

Alternative forms

• skale, schale

Noun

scale (plural scales)

1. ladder

Descendants

• English: scale

References

• “sc?le, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 3

From Old Norse [Term?].

Alternative forms

• shale, schale

Noun

scale (plural scales)

1. hut, hovel

References

• “sc?le, n.(3).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.