Meaning
The way a doctor behaves toward patients at the bedside - tone of voice, body language, tact, and the ability to reassure. A good bedside manner calms and comforts; a poor one leaves patients anxious, dismissed, or talked down to. The term now extends to anyone in an expert or caring role. Neutral register, standard in reviews and discussions of care. Almost always graded - good, poor, brusque; applied figuratively it can sound gently mocking of polished professionals. Regional use: General English (British coinage).
Origin
Coined in Britain. The earliest known use traced by Word Histories is the Bristol Times, and Bath Advocate of 4 August 1849, in a serial tale praising a Spanish physician's sweet bedside manner. The expression was long tied to doctors attending fashionable female patients - the York Evening Press of 22 December 1891 counted a good bedside manner among the requirements of a fashionable lady's physician, and George du Maurier's Punch cartoon of 15 March 1884 satirized patients who judged their doctor by charm rather than skill; Sir Richard Quain warned young doctors against an over-grave manner in the Pall Mall Gazette of 15 May 1891. By 16 April 1895 the North-Eastern Daily Gazette applied it to a tea shopman's soothing medico bedside manner, marking its spread beyond medicine. No individual coiner is known; the 1849 Bristol citation is simply the earliest documented instance.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- a good bedside manner
- no bedside manner at all
- poor bedside manner
Usage Examples
- The new surgeon has brilliant hands but such a cold bedside manner that patients dread their follow-up appointments.
- Her warm bedside manner put the frightened child at ease long before any treatment actually began.
- Patients forgive a long wait far more readily when the doctor has a decent bedside manner.