beadhouse means an almshouse for poor people who pray daily for their benefactors. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.
Why “beadhouse” is a great word
BEADHOUSE — [Noun] An almshouse for the poor, where residence is granted in exchange for the daily obligation to pray for the souls of the founders and benefactors. From Old English bed or gebed ("prayer, request") + English house ("dwelling"). Unlike an "almshouse," which provides general charitable lodging without specific devotional duties, or a "hospice," which historically offered shelter to travelers or the infirm, a beadhouse formalizes a stark transaction where material shelter is exchanged for perpetual intercession. It is the low murmur of psalms in a narrow hall, the worn beads counted in a cold room, and the faint, collective rhythm of petition rising at dusk—a quiet architecture where earthly bread was bartered for heavenly credit, and poverty became an engine of grace.
Etymology
Old English bede prayer + English house.
noun
- An almshouse for poor people who pray daily for their benefactors.