Beck and call

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Meaning

Immediately available and ready to obey another person's requests, signals or slightest wishes. Usually appears as at someone's beck and call and often criticises an unequal or unreasonable demand for constant service. The phrase is beck, not beckon, and call. Regional use: English origin; now used across international English.

Origin

A beck was a silent gesture or nod used as a command, the noun being related to a shortened form of beckon; a call supplied the spoken counterpart. The exact pairing is found in Thomas Churchyard's 1580 writing and recurs in early-seventeenth-century texts, including work by Aemilia Lanyer. That 1580 example is the earliest located by the cited researcher, not proof that Churchyard invented a formula already built from ordinary signals of command.

Research Sources

  1. At someone's beck and call Cambridge University Press & Assessment
  2. At someone's beck and call Word Histories

Variants

  • At your beck and call
  • At someone's beck and call

Usage Examples

  • The director expected an assistant to remain at her beck and call all weekend.
  • I can advise the project, but I will not be at its managers' beck and call.
  • A private driver waited at the guests' beck and call throughout the conference.

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