Bedstead

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of furniture crafted to hold a mattress while providing a supportive frame, generally incorporating both a headboard and a footboard for stability
2. A structural element meant to support a mattress securely, often featuring a designed head piece and end section for aesthetic and functional purposes
3. A framework designed to hold a mattress in place to provide a base for sleeping comfort

Etymology: Bedstead is a compound of two very old English words: "bed" and "stead." The second part is the surprise. "Stead" once meant "place" or "position," and survives today in phrases like "in his stead" (in his place) and in "homestead" and "instead." So the word originally named the place where a bed stood, before it came to mean the frame itself. The word arrived in English from Old English "bedstede," which was formed in the same way from "bed" and "stede." It passed into Middle English as "bedsted" and "bedstede," spellings that show the gradual wearing down of the final vowel into the modern form. Its closest relatives lie across the North Sea: Dutch has "bedstede" and "bedstee," used for a closet-bed built into a wall, which points to an older sense of a bed set into a fixed place.

Synonyms: bed frame