An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Büttel

by Friedrich Kluge

Büttel, masculine, ‘beadle, jailer,’ from Middle High German bütel, Old High German butil, masculine, ‘a messenger of the law’; compare Anglo-Saxon bydel, ‘messenger,’ English beadle (which is based both on the Anglo-Saxon bydel and on a Middle English word of Romance origin — Middle Latin bedellus, Modern French bedeau, ‘beadle’); allied to bieten.