Talk:bedpost

RFV discussion: November–December 2021
Rfv-sense: A post or pin on each side of the bed to keep the bedclothes from falling off; a bedstaff. Notusbutthem (talk) 20:11, 27 November 2021 (UTC)


 * I found a couple of quotes that might have this meaning, but it is impossible to tell unambiguously. Kiwima (talk) 20:51, 3 December 2021 (UTC)


 * What is the source of this definition, I wonder? The [//archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.99992/page/n793/mode/2up OED] has bedpost defined only as "A post of a bed, one of the upright supports of the frame-work of a bed. The twinkling of a bedpost: cf. BEDSTAFF ", where bedstaff is defined as "A staff or stick used in some way about a bed. Formerly well-known as a ready weapon: hence, probably the phrase in the twinkling of a bedstaff: cf 'the twinkling of an eye'.  a. Dr. Johnson explains it [bedstaff, not bedpost!] as: 'A wooden pin stuck anciently on sides of the bed-stead to hold the clothes from slipping on either way.' (For this, no authority is given, and no corroborative evidence has been found.)" Looking through the results at, which include old slang dictionaries, suggests this sense is mere conjecture extrapolated from the single phrase "twinkling of a bedpost", based on people hearing that phrase, knowing it was formerly "twinkling of a bedstaff", deducing what a bedstaff might have been, and then further conjecturing that "bedpost" must have the same meaning. - -sche (discuss) 19:59, 22 December 2021 (UTC)

RFV-failed Kiwima (talk) 20:51, 27 December 2021 (UTC)