different between bedlam vs reverberation

English

Etymology

From Bedlam, alternative name of the English lunatic asylum, Bethlem Royal Hospital (royal hospital from 1375, mental hospital from 1403) (earlier St Mary of Bethlehem outside Bishopsgate, hospice in existence from 1329, priory established 1247), since used to mean “a place or situation of madness and chaos”. Bedlam as name of hospital attested 1450.

Phonologically, corruption of Bethlem, itself a corruption of Bethlehem (the Biblical town), from Ancient Greek ??????? (B?thleém) from Biblical Hebrew ????? ?????? (bê? le?em, literally “house of bread”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b?dl?m/

Noun

bedlam (plural bedlams)

1. A place or situation of chaotic uproar, and where confusion prevails.
2. (obsolete) An insane person; a lunatic; a madman.
   • ca. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act III, sc. 7:

     Let's follow the old Earl, and get the Bedlam

     To lead him where he would; his roguish madness

     Allows itself to anything.

   • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, Christian overtakes Faithful:

     The pilgrims were clothed with such kind of raiment as was diverse from the raiment of any that traded in that fair. The people, therefore, of the fair, made a great gazing upon them: some said they were fools, some they were bedlams, and some they are outlandish men.

3. (obsolete) A lunatic asylum; a madhouse.
   • 1824, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto XIV:lxxxiv:

     Shut up the world at large, let Bedlam out;

     And you will be perhaps surprised to find

     All things pursue exactly the same route,

     As now with those of soi-disant sound mind.

   • 1843, Charles Dickens, "A Christmas Carol":

     “There’s another fellow,” muttered Scrooge; who overheard him: “my clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas. I’ll retire to Bedlam.”

   • ca. 1909, Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, Letter II:

     ... only the holy can stand the joys of that bedlam.

Descendants

• ? Russian: ??????? (bedlám)

Translations

Further reading

• Bethlem Royal Hospital on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• bedlam in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• ambled, balmed, beldam, blamed, lambed

English

Alternative forms

• reverbation (rare)

Etymology

From Old French reverberation, from Medieval Latin reverberatio.Morphologically reverberate +? -ion

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?i?v??(?)b??e???n/, /???v??(?)b??e???n/, /???v??(?)b??e???n/

Noun

reverberation (countable and uncountable, plural reverberations)

1. A violent oscillation or vibration.

   The discomfort caused by the bat's reverberation surprised Tommy.

2. An echo, or a series of overlapping echoes.

   The reverberation that followed Marilyn's shout filled the cavern.

3. The reflection of light or heat; a reflection in, or as though in, a mirror.

   Like the several reverberations of the same image from two opposite looking glasses.

4. (chiefly in the plural) An evolving series of effects resulting from a particular event; a repercussion.

   Reverberations from the Vietnam war affect our society to this day.

Translations

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “reverberation”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN