Shu and I were wondering where "make your bed" originated. Does anyone know? I googled around but couldn't find the answer. On the other hand, I found this nice history of the bed. It mentions the Great Bed of Ware at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is 18 feet 6 inches wide by 12 feet long and could accommodate 68 people! Have any of your in England seen it?
I'd imagine that originally people would gather leaves, straw, and the like to make a new bed every night. When they advanced to sleeping on mattresses the phrase continued in use to mean preparing the mattress and covers for sleeping. Early homes were all one room so beds were kept stored out of the way until needed.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
make v1 62. [Compare Middle Dutch een bedde māken, German ein Bett machen, Old French faire un lit (end of 11th cent.), post-classical Latin facere lectum (1226).] To prepare (a bed) for sleeping in; to arrange bedclothes on (a bed) for future use.Quots. c1300 at sense 5 and c13002 at sense 15a refer to the preparation of sleeping-places (which would not exist until ‘made’) on the floors or benches of medieval open halls, rather than to the arrangement of bedclothes on bedsteads: cf. bed n. 1a, 3 respectively. They therefore have the sense of branch I.
c1300St. Brendan (Harl. 2277) 128 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 223 Beddes þer were, al ȝare ymaked.
c1300Havelok (Laud) (1868) 658 Grim dede maken a ful fayr bed.
c1405 (1390) Chaucer Reeve's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 219 This Millere‥in his owene chambre hem made a bed With shetes‥faire yspred.
a1450York Plays 509 Ȝe‥made my bedde full esyly.
c1450 (1386) Chaucer Legend Good Women Prol. 205, I bad men shulde me my couche make.
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 617/2 Make your bedde a dayes or you go out of your chamber.
a1616 Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor (1623) i. iv. 92, I wash, ring, brew‥make the beds, and doe all my selfe.
1709 W. King Art of Love viii. 1104 You'll scrub the rooms, or make the bed.
a1745 Swift Duty of Servants at Inns in Wks. (1752) VIII. 346 When your Master's Bed is made‥lock the Chamber Door.
1750 J. Ray Compl. Hist. Rebell. (1758) 145 After I was gone‥the Chambermaid went to make my Bed.
1753 J. Hanway Hist. Acct. Brit. Trade Caspian Sea I. iii. xxxi. 136 They might sleep in the bed which they had made.
1784 A. Adams Lett. (1848) 157 Not one of us could make her own bed, put on or take off her shoes, or even lift a finger.
1832 W. Hone Year Bk. 1301 He would not allow his bed to be made oftener than once a-week.
1883 F. Nightingale in Quain's Dict. Med. at Nursing, A true nurse always knows how to make a bed, and always makes it herself.
1889 N. H. Kennard Landing Prize III. iv. 78 She knows how to make a bed‥and cook a dinner.
1925Amer. Mercury Oct. 170/1 Diplomas of the graduates vouched for the ability of the college-bred hotel men to cut and roast a steer, [and] to make beds.
1982 L. Cody Bad Company xx. 141 He helped her make the bed.
Edited to clean up textThis message has been edited. Last edited by: tinman,
Thanks, Tinman. Interestingly, it doesn't seem to have the "gathering the straw" aspect of making the bed. I did enjoy the Florence Nightingale dictionary definition. I can assure you that these days nurses don't make the beds. That's done by the nursing assistants.
