beadle Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a minor parish official who serves a ceremonial function
  2. noun United States biologist who discovered how hereditary characteristics are transmitted by genes (1903-1989)
    George Beadle; George Wells Beadle.

WordNet

Bea"dle noun
Etymology
OE. bedel, bidel, budel, OF. bedel, F. bedeau, fr. OHG. butil, putil, G. büttel, fr. OHG. biotan, G. bieten, to bid, confused with AS. bydel, the same word as OHG. butil. See. Bid, v.
Definitions
  1. A messenger or crier of a court; a servitor; one who cites or bids persons to appear and answer; -- called also an apparitor or summoner.
  2. An officer in a university, who precedes public processions of officers and students. Eng. ✍ In this sense the archaic spellings bedel (Oxford) and bedell (Cambridge) are preserved.
  3. An inferior parish officer in England having a variety of duties, as the preservation of order in church service, the chastisement of petty offenders, etc.

Webster 1913