Legal Writing

The Curious History of ?Bead?

By Maeve Maddox

You may have heard the expression “to draw a bead,” meaning “to take aim.” A hunter, for example, “draws a bead” on the quarry. The expression, used both literally and figuratively, is popular with headline writers

Connecticut gunman drew bead on bosses

Kiefer Sutherland and ’24′ draw a bead on a feature film

HP and Microsoft Draw a Bead on Cisco

The “bead” in this expression comes from “the small metal knob that forms the front sight of a gun.”

The word bead attached to this knob because of its resemblance to the kind of bead most of us probably think of when we hear the word:

A small perforated body, spherical or otherwise, of glass, amber, metal, wood, etc., used as an ornament, either strung in a series to form a necklace, bracelet, etc., or sewn upon various fabrics.

This general sense of bead derived in turn from rosary beads, the little markers strung together for the purpose of helping a worshipper count prayers.

Originally, “beads” were not the little objects on the string, but the the prayers being said. Bead in this sense is a cognate of German bitte, a word that is used to make a request. Someone praying with a rosary was said to be “telling his beads,” that is, counting his prayers. Another meaning of the verb to tell is “to count.” (The bank teller counts out your money.) Historically, wealthy patrons would pay people to pray for them on a regular basis. These professionals were called beadsmen or beadswomen. Keats begins his poem St. Agnes’ Eve with this evocation of a harsh winter’s evening:

St. Agnes’ Eve–Ah, bitter chill it was! ?
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold; ?
The hare limp’d trembling through the frozen grass,
?And silent was the flock in woolly fold:
?Numb were the Beadsman’s fingers, while he told
?His rosary, and while his frosted breath,
?Like pious incense from a censer old,
?Seem’d taking flight for heaven?

An earlier spelling of bead was bede, from Old English gebed, “prayer.” The OE verb biddan meant “to pray” as well as “to ask.” By the late 14th century, the word bede/bead had attached to the objects on which the prayers were told or counted.

The expression “to draw a bead on” is an obvious headline choice when the topic is something like gun control,

Critics Draw A Bead On State House Gun Ban

but I wonder if the writer who came up with this one about the popularity of rosaries with non-Catholic soldiers in Iraq realized just how clever it is:

Worshippers draw bead on rosaries

Like this article? Then you'll love our book: 100 Writing Mistakes to Avoid. It lists 100 common spelling, punctuation, grammar and usage mistakes. You can buy it today with a 50% discount!

Full post as published by Daily Writing Tips on August 17, 2010 (boomark / email).