bask

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English basken (“to bathe, wallow”),^[2][3][4] which most dictionaries take as borrowed from Old Norse baðask (“to bathe oneself”),^{[5][6][7][8][1]} the reflexive of baða (“to bathe”), formed with the reflexive suffix -sk, a contraction of sik (“oneself”).^[3][7][1] The OED assumes an unrecorded earlier form with “th”, which was lost as in sou'west for south-west,^[5] and the later Icelandic form is baðast (“to bathe oneself”).^[5][6] The Old Norse verb is related to Old English bæþ (“bath”), the source of bath.^[3][9] The Middle English Dictionary rejects this derivation and calls the word of unknown origin,^[2] and Etymonline follows it.^[10] The Shorter Oxford and the American Heritage Dictionary call the Norse origin only possible,^[11][3] and Barnhart says the word is perhaps from a Scandinavian source.^[4] Johnson, following Skinner, derived it from Dutch.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To bathe or wallow in warm liquid or blood: Gower's Confessio Amantis (1393), of a child lying in its mother's warm blood, who "basketh him aboute thrinne".^[5][2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb meant to bathe, especially in warm water or blood;^[2][5] Lydgate wrote of "his broþer baskyng in his blood" (about 1420).^[2][13] The Middle English Dictionary also records transitive uses in recipes, for soaking a hide in a solution of alum, washing cloth in dye, and bathing a limb with a medicinal liquid.^[2] The bathing sense died out in the 16th century.^[5][11] The modern sense of lying in pleasant warmth goes back to Shakespeare's As You Like It, where a fool "basked him in the sun";^[13][5] Etymonline thinks that this use created it.^[10] The figurative sense of revelling in favour or admiration is first recorded in 1647, in Cowley,^[5][4] and the intransitive use for lying in warmth in 1694, in Dryden's translation of Virgil.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined the transitive verb as warming by laying out in the heat, "used almost always of animals", and the intransitive as lying in the warmth.^[12] A noun, figurative warmth of favour, followed in 1762 and a spell of basking in 1790.^[5]

Timeline

• 1393 – to bathe or wallow, especially in warm liquid or blood (obsolete by 1530).^[5][2]
• before 1400 – transitive, to soak a hide in alum, or to wash cloth in dye.^[2]
• before 1616 – transitive, chiefly reflexive, to warm in the sun or another source of heat.^[5]
• 1647 – figurative, to luxuriate in love, favour or prosperity.^[5][4]
• 1694 – intransitive, to lie enjoying warmth or sunshine.^[5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this sense to 1633.^[14]
• 1762 – noun, the warmth of favour or popularity.^[5]
• 1790 – noun, a spell of basking.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lie in or expose oneself to pleasant warmth, especially that of the sun: Lizards basked on the garden wall.^[15][14][16]
2. To take great pleasure in something, such as attention, approval or success: The team basked in the praise of their fans.^[15][16][9]
3. (transitive, chiefly reflexive) To warm by exposing to heat.^[5][12][9]
4. (obsolete, 1393–1530) To bathe or wallow, especially in warm liquid or blood.^[5][2][11]

Noun

1. A spell of basking, or the warmth one basks in.^[5]

Related words

• bathe
• bath

Usage notes

An adjective bask, bitter or acrid, has a separate source, Old Norse beisk; the OED records it from the Ormulum (about 1175) to 1808,^[5] and the Shorter Oxford labels it dialectal.^[11] The English Dialect Dictionary records bask as an adjective for very dry weather in Scotland and Cumberland, and as verbs for parching with heat in Yorkshire, for coughing asthmatically in Cheshire and Shropshire, and for beating severely in East Anglia.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)