beck [ME] If you are at someone’s beck and call you have to be ready to obey their orders immediately. The phrase is known from the 19th century, but beck itself is much older, being a Middle English shortening of beckon [ME], a Germanic word with a core sense of ‘sign’ related to beacon [OE]. The northern English word beck [ME], meaning a stream or brook, is unconnected, and comes from the Old Norse for ‘stream’.