Thinking of abbots, abodes & abads, as well as bade, bid, bide & bode led me to think about Bede. Where does that come from?
According to Chambers it’s the same as bead in its old sense of a prayer.
Thus we can have a bead house (chapel), a bead roll (list of the dead to be prayed for) & a beads- or bedes-man/woman bound or endowed to pray for others.
In Scots it can also mean a licensed beggar.
But that raises the interesting question of whether Bede acquired his name because of his job or whether that is just another coincidence.
