bay

English has five main words spelled bay: the bark of hounds, a section of a building, the reddish-brown colour of horses, the laurel tree and the inlet of the sea, each borrowed separately from French.^[1][2]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /beɪ/^[3]

bay¹ barking

Etymology

The barking is inherited from Middle English bay, partly a shortening of earlier abay,^[1][2] borrowed from Old French abai (“barking”), from abaier (“to bark”) or baier,^[1][2] probably imitative of the sound;^[1][2][4] Barnhart thinks it may have been influenced by Medieval Latin batare “to gape”.^[1] Etymonline compares Greek bauzein and Latin baubārī “to bark” and English bow-wow.^[5] The verb is aphetic of Middle English abayen, from Old French abaier.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The chorus of barking raised by hounds in close conflict with the hunted animal: about 1300 in the OED and Etymonline,^[6][5] in Barnhart as abay “at bay with barking dogs”, in Guy of Warwick.^[1]

Semantic evolution

From the hunted animal's position comes the sense “final encounter”.^[5] Turning to face the danger when escape is impossible gave the phrase at bay, from about 1314.^[5][6] To keep at bay, of the hunted animal holding off the hounds, is from about 1532,^[6] and in the figurative sense of holding something at a distance it is still common.^[7][8] The verb, to bark, is from the late 14th century;^[5] Barnhart finds bayen in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight about 1390.^[1] To bay for blood, to call loudly for punishment, is from the early 20th century.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – barking of hounds.^[6][5]
• c. 1314 – at bay.^[6]
• c. 1390 – verb, to bark.^[1]
• 1530 – a dog's deep prolonged bark.^[6]
• c. 1532 – to keep at bay.^[6]
• early 20th century – to bay for blood.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A deep, long bark, like that of hounds.
2. The position of a hunted animal cornered and forced to turn and fight.
3. The position of being held off: to keep at bay.

Verb

1. To bark or howl with a deep, long sound.
2. To pursue with barking; to bring to bay.

bay² section of a building

Etymology

The section of a building is borrowed from Old French baee (“opening, hole”),^[5][1] the noun use of the feminine past participle of baer (“to gape, stand open”) (later bayer),^[5][1][2] from Medieval Latin batare (“to gape”), perhaps imitative.^[5][1] The same verb is the source, through Old French baif “open-mouthed”, of bevel.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An opening in a wall, especially the space between two columns: about 1325 in the OED,^[6] the late 14th century in Etymonline,^[5] and probably about 1380 in Barnhart.^[1]

Semantic evolution

A division of a barn is from 1557,^[6] and a compartment for storage from the 1550s.^[5] The idea of a recess gave the horse-bay or stall and the sick-bay of a ship, from 1582.^[6] A bay window, set in a recess, is from 1405 in Barnhart^[1] and the early 15th century in Etymonline.^[5] The word has been somewhat confused with the bay that is an inlet of the sea.^[5] A side line at a railway station is from 1906,^[6] and a section of a trench from 1916.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1325 – an opening in a wall.^[6]
• 1405 – bay window.^[1]
• 1557 – a division of a barn.^[6]
• 1582 – a recess, a sick-bay.^[6]
• 1906 – a railway siding.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A part of a building marked off by columns or pilasters.
2. A bay window, or a recess in a wall.
3. A compartment set aside for a purpose, as in a barn, garage or aircraft: a loading bay.
4. A sickbay.

Word family

• bay window
• sickbay

bay³ reddish-brown

Etymology

The colour is borrowed from Anglo-Norman bai, Old French bai,^[5][1][9] from Latin badius (“chestnut-brown”), used only of horses,^[5][1][2] from Proto-Indo-European *badyo- (“yellow, brown”),^[5] the source also of Old Irish buide “yellow”.^[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Reddish-brown: 1341 in Barnhart, through Anglo-Latin and Anglo-French;^[1] Etymonline dates it to the mid-14th century, usually of horses,^[5] and the OED to about 1374.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The colour was generally used of horses, taking in various shades such as bright bay and blood bay, and only rarely of other things.^[6] As a noun, short for a bay horse, it is from 1535.^[6][5]

Timeline

• 1341 – reddish-brown.^[1]
• 1535 – a bay horse.^[6][9]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Reddish-brown, especially of a horse.

Noun

1. A reddish-brown horse, especially one with a black mane and tail.
2. A reddish-brown colour.

bay⁴ laurel

Etymology

The laurel is borrowed from Old French baie (“berry, seed”),^[5][1][2] from Latin bāca (“berry”), also bacca,^[5][1] a word of uncertain origin.^[5] Barnhart takes it as probably from a non-Indo-European language and related to the name of the Thracian wine god Bacchus;^[1] de Vaan finds the link with Bacchus difficult, and some linguists compare Berber *bqa “blackberry” and suggest a borrowing from a lost Mediterranean language.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A berry, especially that of the laurel: 1373 in Barnhart,^[1] the late 14th century in Etymonline,^[5] and 1398 in the OED.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant only the berry.^[5] It was extended to the tree itself, the bay laurel, in the 1520s in Etymonline^[5] or 1530 in the OED,^[6] with Barnhart dating it probably about 1425.^[1] Its leaves were woven into wreaths for conquerors and poets, which gave the sense “honorary crown or garland” in the 1560s,^[5][6] and so “honour, renown”.^[7] The bayberry (1570s) was coined after the original sense had shifted to the tree,^[5] and the bay leaf is from the 1630s in Etymonline^[5] or about 1450 in Barnhart.^[1]

Timeline

• 1373 – a berry.^[1]
• 1520s – the laurel tree.^[5]
• 1564 – leaves woven into a wreath.^[6]
• 1570s – bayberry.^[5]
• 1630s – bay leaf.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The laurel tree, Laurus nobilis, whose leaves are used in cooking.
2. Any of various similar trees or shrubs with fragrant leaves.
3. A wreath of laurel given as an honour; hence, fame.

Word family

• bay leaf
• bayberry

bay⁵ inlet

Etymology

The inlet is inherited from Middle English baye,^[1] borrowed from Old French baie, of uncertain origin.^[1][2] Whether the Old French word comes from Late Latin baia or from a Frisian *baga is disputed;^[1] Barnhart thinks it likely that it developed from baer “to open”, from Medieval Latin batare, as Corominas suggests, and that Isidore of Seville's Late Latin baia was a mistake based on the port of Baiae in Campania.^[1] Etymonline takes it from Late Latin baia, the source of Spanish and Portuguese bahia, perhaps from Iberian;^[5] the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins traces it to Old Spanish bahia, but no further.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An indentation of the sea into the land with a wide mouth: 1385 in the OED,^[6] about 1400 in Etymonline,^[5] probably before 1400 in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon according to Barnhart.^[1]

Semantic evolution

A recess in a range of hills is from 1853,^[6] and in American use an arm of prairie partly surrounded by woods from 1850.^[6] An indentation or projection of the land into the sea, from 1611, is now obsolete and perhaps a distinct word.^[6]

Timeline

• 1385 – an inlet of the sea.^[6]
• 1850 – an arm of prairie.^[6]
• 1853 – a recess in hills.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A body of water partly enclosed by land, with a wide mouth to the sea; a broad inlet.
2. An area of land partly enclosed by woodland or hills.

Related words

• bevel
• bawl
• laurel

Usage notes

In southern English dialect, from Kent to Devon, a bay was a dam or embankment holding back water,^[10][6] a sense Merriam-Webster dates to the 14th century.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ 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)