Abed means in bed, in old or literary use. Still abed, lie abed, keep to his bed abed.
It survives in poetry and in deliberate archaism, and the commonest sighting is Shakespeare's line about gentlemen in England now abed. The a- at the front is the old preposition on, as it is in ashore and asleep.
1adverbabedIn bed, in old or literary use.
“It was nearly noon, and the young prince was still abed.”
abed is a place.
Old English on bedde means in bed; the a- is the worn-down preposition on.
Old English
on — in
Middle English
abedde
English, today
abed
Built from
From Middle English abedde, o bedde, from Old English on (“in”) + bedd (“bed”). Equivalent to a + bed.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA