Obs. Forms: 46 bewpere, beaupere, 47 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., ones 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 ones 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. A term of courtesy for father, used esp. to or of a spiritual or ecclesiastical Father.
c. 1300. Beket, 1299. The Bischop of Cicestre gon arise: Beau pere, he seide to the Pope.
c. 1375. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. 1871, II. 380. Summe children þus maad freris ben worse þan her bewperis.
c. 1450. Pol. Poems (1859), II. 229. Bridelle, you, bysshoppe And biddeth yowre beawperes se to the same.
1599. Broughtons Lett., v. 17. The holy fathers of the Church, the reuerend Beaupeeres of diuine knowledge.
2. Good fellow, fellow, companion, compeer.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XVIII. 229. Boke hiȝte þat beupere, a bolde man of speche.
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.
1610. G. Fletcher, Christs Vict., in Farr, S. P. (1848), 74. There The saints with their beawpeers whole worlds outweare.