Obs. Forms: 4–6 bewpere, beaupere, 4–7 beaupeere, 5 beawpere, bepyr, bewpyr, 6 bewpeer, 7 beawpeer. [f. OF. beau fine, good + père father, or, in sense 2, per, peer (mod. pair) equal, PEER. See BEAU. In OF., beau père was politely used in addressing every one whom one called ‘father’; i.e., one’s own father, a ‘father’ in the church, a god-father, a step-father, a father-in-law, an elderly man occupying a fatherly position in one’s regard; about the 16th or 17th c., this use of beau became obsolete, and beau-père was retained as a distinctive term for ‘father-in-law’ and ‘step-father’ as distinct from a real father. In English the use appears to have been much more limited. See also BEL.]

1

  1.  A term of courtesy for ‘father,’ used esp. to or of a spiritual or ecclesiastical ‘Father.’

2

c. 1300.  Beket, 1299. The Bischop of Cicestre gon arise: Beau pere, he seide to the Pope.

3

c. 1375.  Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. 1871, II. 380. Summe children þus maad freris ben worse þan her bewperis.

4

c. 1450.  Pol. Poems (1859), II. 229. Bridelle, you, bysshoppe … And biddeth yowre beawperes se to the same.

5

1599.  Broughton’s Lett., v. 17. The holy fathers of the Church, the reuerend Beaupeeres of diuine knowledge.

6

  2.  Good fellow, fellow, companion, compeer.

7

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XVIII. 229. Boke hiȝte þat beupere, a bolde man of speche.

8

1572.  Schole-house Wom., 774, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 135. In her lap sleeping she clipt of his hear, Betraied her Lord and her bewpeer.

9

1610.  G. Fletcher, Christ’s Vict., in Farr, S. P. (1848), 74. There The saints with their beawpeers whole worlds outweare.

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