Bethlehem

From Middle English Bethlehem, Bethleem, Bedlem, Beþþleæm, from Old English Bethlehem and Old French Bethleem, both from Latin Bēthlehēmum, Bēthleëm, from Ancient Greek Βηθλεέμ (Bēthleém), from Hebrew בֵּית לֶחֶם (bēṯ léḥem, “house of bread”). Doublet of bedlam.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛθləhɛm/, /ˈbɛθlihɛm/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Bethlehem

1. A city in the West Bank, Palestine, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 2:1:

     Now when Ieſus was boꝛne in Bethlehem of Iudea, in the dayes of Herod the king, behold, there came Wiſe men from the Eaſt to Hierusalem,

2. A number of other places around the world:
   1. A hamlet near Rottum, Groningen province, Netherlands.
   2. A settlement just west of Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. [1]
   3. A town in Free State province, South Africa.
   4. A quarter of Bümpliz-Oberbottigen, city of Bern, Switzerland.
   5. A small village in Llangadog community, Carmarthenshire, Wales (OS grid ref SN6825).
   6. A hamlet in Rudbaxton community, Pembrokeshire, Wales (OS grid ref SM9820).
   7. A number of places in the United States:
      1. A town in Litchfield County, Connecticut.
      2. An unincorporated community in Holmes County, Florida.
      3. A town in Barrow County, Georgia.
      4. A township and unincorporated community therein, in Clark County, Indiana.
      5. An unincorporated community in Henry County, Kentucky.
      6. An unincorporated community in Winn Parish, Louisiana.
      7. An unincorporated community in Caroline County, Maryland.
      8. A census-designated place in Marshall County, Mississippi.
      9. A town and census-designated place therein, in Grafton County, New Hampshire.
      10. A town in Albany County, New York.
      11. A census-designated place in Alexander County, North Carolina.
      12. A ghost town in Marion County, Ohio.
      13. An unincorporated community in Richland County, Ohio.
      14. A city in Northampton County and Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.
      15. An unincorporated community in Wayne County, Tennessee.
      16. An unincorporated community in Harrison County, West Virginia.
      17. A village in Ohio County, West Virginia.
      18. A number of other townships in the United States, listed under Bethlehem Township

• East Bethlehem
• Bethlehem lungwort
• Bethlehem sage

Bethlehem (plural Bethlehems)

1. (obsolete) A lunatic asylum.
2. (architecture) In the Ethiopic church, a small building attached to a church edifice, in which the bread for the Eucharist is made.
   • 1869, John Baron, Anglosaxon witness on four alleged requisites for holy communion:

     […] to the Hebrew and Arabic word “korban” as now used in the Abyssinian Church to denote the sacramental bread specially prepared in the “Bethlehem,” or “House of Bread.”

   • 1882, William Audsley, George Ashdown Audsley, Popular Dictionary of Architecture and the Allied Arts, page 200:

     A small building, attached to Ethiopic churches, usually at the eastern end of the sacrarium, in which the deacon prepares and bakes the bread for use in the eucharist. This building is called the Bethlehem, or “house of bread.”

   • 2006, Geoffrey Wainwright, Robert Earl Cushman, Karen B. Westerfield Tucker, The Oxford History of Christian Worship, page 143:

     The deacon rings a bell when bread is brought from the bethlehem to the maqdas and at other liturgical times

   • 2014, Bryan D. Spinks, Do this in Remembrance of Me, page 174:

     The priests and deacons assigned to the service wash their feet and hands, usually near the 'Bethlehem'.

• bedlam
• Bethlem

• Betlehem (superseded)

From Latin Bēthlehēmum, Bēthleëm, from Ancient Greek Βηθλεέμ (Bēthleém), from Hebrew בֵּית לֶחֶם (bet léchem, “house of bread”).

The hamlet is first attested as Bethlehem in 1502 and is named after a former monastery, which was named in turn after the city in Palestine.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛt.leːˌɦɛm/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Beth‧le‧hem

Bethlehem n

1. Bethlehem (a city in the West Bank, Palestine).
2. A hamlet in Het Hogeland, Groningen, Netherlands.

• Betlehem

• IPA^(key): /ˈbeːt.ləˌhɛm/, /-ˌheːm/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Beth‧le‧hem

Bethlehem n (proper noun, genitive Bethlehems or (optionally with an article) Bethlehem)

1. Bethlehem (a city in Palestine)

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈbeːtʰ.le.hem/, [ˈbeːt̪ʰɫ̪e(ɦ)ɛ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈbet.le.em/, [ˈbɛt̪leːm]

Bēthlehem n (indeclinable)

1. Alternative form of Bēthlehēmum

• “Bēthlĕhem”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Bethlehem in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Bethlehem

1. Alternative form of Bethleem