benedict

From Benedicke (normalized to the usual spelling, Benedict), a character in William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (1598).

benedict (plural benedicts)

1. (rare) A newly married man, especially one who was previously a confirmed bachelor.
   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger Poeple's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 50:

     The benedict, drearily superfluous to the festivities, had hardly been noticed by her as he lurked about the walls and sought what entertainment was possible to one under the social disabilities of matrimony.

• Garner's Usage Tip of the Day: "Benedict/Benedicke", accessed on 2005-04-30, which in turn cites Garner's Modern American Usage, Bryan Garner, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, 2003

Latin benedictus, past participle of benedicere (“to bless”). See benison, and compare bennet.

benedict (comparative more benedict, superlative most benedict)

1. (obsolete) Having mild and salubrious qualities.
   • 1622, Francis Bacon, Natural History, 1740, The Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, Volume 3, page 5,

     And it is not a ſmall thing won in Phyſick, if you can make rhubarb, and other medicines that are benedict, as ſtrong purgers, as thoſe that are not without ſome malignity.

benedict (third-person singular simple present benedicts, present participle benedicting, simple past and past participle benedicted)

1. (rare) to bless

• benedict in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.