Meaning

noun a small ball with a hole through the middle

noun a shape that is spherical and small

noun a beaded molding for edging or decorating furniture

originFrom Middle English bede (“a prayer”), also “a bead for counting prayers” in a peire of bedes (literally “a pair of beads”), from Old English bedu, bed, ġebed (“a request, entreaty, prayer”), from Proto-West Germanic *bedu, *bed, *gabed, from Proto-Germanic *bedō, *bedą. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Gebäd (“prayer”), Cimbrian gapéet (“prayer”), Dutch gebed and bede (“prayer”), German Gebet…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0