The Hogarth painting of today's word leads to a movie of 1946 with Boris Karloff. (Val Lewton)Anyone ever seen it? Looks quite special. There's an image galery with detail photo's

Link

I remember this movie. It scared me as a kid.

Ditto for my part.

How, did your parents take you to scary movies? Till what age is
a kid considered a kid? But.. the word bedlam is one of those that
does not have the looks of what it means at all. I thought it was related to oorlam = a dram, a shot of liquor.

I thought it was related to oorlam = a dram, a shot of liquor.

Laugh out loud. Bedlam is from the toponym Bethlehem.

I thought it was derived from the name of a mental hospital in London. 19th Century? Earlier? Maybe I'm thinking of the word, "parliament."

I thought it was derived from the name of a mental hospital in London.

Yes the name of the institution was 'Bethlehem'

Though parliament falls in to Bedlam quite often.

http://wordsmith.org/words/bedlam.html

Here are the details; I always read the Word of the Day with attention. It is a toponym, but a bit of a lame word it seems to me. Bedlamite is synonymous to insane person.