Middle English Dictionary Entry

bēm n.
Quotations: Show all Hide all

Entry Info

Forms bēm n. Also beam, beim, beom, beum; pl. bemes, (early) bæmen.
Etymology OE bēam

Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)

1.
(a) A tree [cp. fike ~, note ~, etc.]; (b) the Cross; bote of ~, relief from suffering or misfortune; (c) ~ of cloud, a pillar of cloud; (d) a specific kind of tree, probably one or more varieties of rowan or mountain ash (genus Sorbus).
Show 10 Quotations
2.
(a) A wooden beam used in the framework of a building, a ship, etc.; a timber; ~ filling, q.v.; (b) a bar of metal, etc., used as a beam in a building; (c) beme(s hed, the end of a timber; esp., the end of a beam projecting through the planking of a ship, beam-end; ~ nail, a nail or spike used for fastening a timber; (d) ~ in eie [cp. Mat. 7.3], the beam in (one's) eye.
Show 30 Quotations
3.
(a) A balance for weighing, a scale; also, the beam of a scale; commune ~, kinges ~, a standard scale used by all merchants of a town or guild, official or the public scale; (b) a plow beam [cp. plough ~]; (c) a beam of a weaver's loom; ~ of webbe (webbestere); (d) ?a staff; (e) a battering ram.
Show 21 Quotations
4.
The main trunk of a deer's horn; also, the horn of an animal.
Show 4 Quotations
5.
A vein of ore, a lode.
Show 2 Quotations
6.
In names.
Show 2 Quotations
7.
(a) A shaft of light, a ray; a beam of the sun, the moon, a star, etc.; (b) the tail of a comet; (c) a ray of firelight; ?also, a tongue of flame; (d) a gleam or sparkle from gold or a precious stone; (e) fig. a ray of light emanating from God, renown, truth, virtue, etc.; (f) bright as ~.
Show 36 Quotations
8.
(a) Light, radiance; (b) the gleaming of a precious stone.
Show 8 Quotations
9.
A kind of candelabrum; a row or a cluster of candles or tapers; ~ light.
Show 5 Quotations
10.
Phys. A ray: (a) a light ray from a luminous object; bending (reboundinge) of ~, reflection; brekinge of ~, refraction; (b) a ray sent out from the eye to the object seen; ~ of sighte [cp. sighte ~]; (c) a ray passing from the object seen to the eye; broken ~, a refracted ray; rebounded ~, a reflected ray; right ~, a ray passing in a straight line from the object to the eye; (d) a line of light extending between the object seen and the eye; ~ of the piram of sighte, one of the lines forming the pyramid of sight (of which the base touches the object, and the apex the eye); (e) ~ of hete, a heat ray.
Show 10 Quotations

Supplemental Materials (draft)

  • (1452) in Gross Gild Merch.2.69 : Hyt is ordyned that what soo ewer man beforeynt desyre too hawe annaye porsyone of erene..that he paye at the beme or at the planke redy monye.
    • Note: Additional quot. for sense 3.(a).
  • (1337-9) in Sandahl ME Sea Terms 227 : Et de iiij. s. ix. d. solutis pro ij. lignis emptis vocatis fillings pro le bemes et positis in naue predicta.
  • (1337-9) in Sandahl ME Sea Terms 227 : Et de ij. s. pro iij. lignis Maeremij emptis pro ligacione bemes in naui.
    • Note: Quots. belong to sense 2.(a).
    Note: Sandahl provides a more specific sense for 'bem' here: "a transverse timber supporting the deck."
  • (a1398) Trev.Barth.(Add 27944:Seymour)485/16 : Þe sonne, passinge in þe middil of þe cercle þat is departid in signes, sendiþ fro himself xii. bemes, by þe whiche þe ouere bodies and þe neþire ben bischyne.
  • (a1398) Trev.Barth.(Add 27944:Seymour)513/12 : A liȝt beme is a briȝt streme of a body of liȝt.
    • Note: Quots. belong to sense 8.(a).
    Note: Add to gloss: "also, a ray of light or sunlight."--notes per MLL
Note: The list of variant spellings in the form section is incomplete and needs revision to accord with standards of later volumes of the MED.--notes per MLL

©2025 Regents of the University of Michigan. For details about this collection's copyright see the MEC copyright statement and the U-M Library Copyright Policy. Data last refreshed Tuesday, March 4, 2025 at 12:18:00.