Bethlehem
/ˈbɛθ.lə.hɛm/ proper noun, noun
Forms Bethlehems
- proper noun A city in the West Bank, Palestine, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus.
- proper noun A hamlet near Rottum, Groningen province, Netherlands.
- proper noun A settlement just west of Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.
- proper noun A town in the Free State province, South Africa.
- proper noun A quarter of Bümpliz-Oberbottigen, city of Bern, Switzerland.
- proper noun A small village in Llangadog community, Carmarthenshire, Wales (OS grid ref SN6825).
- proper noun A hamlet in Rudbaxton community, Pembrokeshire, Wales (OS grid ref SM9820).
- proper noun A town in Litchfield County, Connecticut.
- noun (obsolete) A lunatic asylum.
- noun (architecture) In the Ethiopic church, a small building attached to a church edifice, in which the bread for the Eucharist is made.
Synonyms
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English Bethleem, from Old French Bethleem and Old English Bethleem, from Latin Bēthlehēmum, from Ancient Greek Βηθλεέμ (Bēthleém), from Hebrew בֵּית לֶחֶם (bēṯ lɛ́ḥɛm, literally “house of bread”). Doublet of bedlam and Belém.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A hospital for lunatics; --corrupted into bedlam.
- noun In the Ethiopic church, a small building attached to a church edifice, in which the bread for the eucharist is made. Audsley.
Etymology [Heb. b house of food; b house + lekhem food, lakham to eat. Formerly the name of a hospital for the insane, in London, which had been the priory of St. Mary of Bethlehem. Cf. Bedlam.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “Bethlehem”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details