Bedlam is a scene of wild noise and confusion. Absolute bedlam, bedlam broke out, bedlam in the streets.
It is the name of a real hospital: Bethlem in London, the oldest institution for mental illness in Europe, which by the eighteenth century charged visitors to come and stare at the patients. The word carries that history whether the speaker knows it or not.
1nounbedlamA scene of wild noise and confusion.
“When the teacher left the room, the classroom descended into bedlam.”
bedlam is a confusion.
BEDLam → a room of BEDs, all shouting at once
A room full of beds, and every single person in them shouting at once, so loud that nobody can hear the door open.
hooks ontobed
From Bedlam, the popular name of Bethlem Royal Hospital in London, itself from Bethlehem.
hbo
בֵּית לֶחֶם
Ancient Greek
Βηθλεέμ
English, today
bedlam
From Bedlam, alternative name of the English lunatic asylum, Bethlem Royal Hospital (royal hospital from 1375, mental hospital from 1403) (earlier St Mary of Bethlehem outside Bishopsgate, hospice in existence from 1329, priory established 1247), since used to mean “a place or situation of madness and chaos”. Bedlam as name of hospital attested 1450. Phonologically, corruption of a doublet of Bethlem, itself a corruption of a doublet of Bethlehem (the Biblical town), from Ancient Greek Βηθλεέμ from hbo בֵּית לֶחֶם literally “house of bread”. However, also compare Spanish belén (“confusion, disorder; a place characteristic of such”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA