Smiles
June 16th, 2009, 22:59
Having been annoyed at myself more than once over the years regarding the use of 'baited' or 'bated' when referring to one's breathing and not really knowing for sure which to use, I have invariably used whichever word came to mind first, and then just carried on.
The use of the phrase (being rather ancient, thus the dilemma) is so few and far between that (1) it's easily forgotten, (2) it doesn't really matter anyway, and (3) almost no one ever calls you on it.
But in the "arsehole" thread below, a couple of posters have taken Gone Fishing to task ~ mainly out of pettiness I should add, the comments having precisely zero to do with the thread subject ~ for his use of 'baited' instead of 'bated'.
Following that, and his indubitable fashion at taking umbrage at anyone on the board who should correct him, Gone Fishing, all puffed up to the max male pidgeon-like, this time seems to be on the wrong side of Shakespeare, Mark Twain, poet Geoffrey Taylor(?) and proper english usage in general.
As the article below makes clear, the mistake is so common that to make a Big Hairy Deal about it is to pronounce one's self petty in the extreme.
But in the end, general consensus seems to indicate that the proper word in this hoary old phrase seems to be 'bated' not 'baited'.
(More importantly, deep down in one of these quotes I found a terrific word I haven't used, or heard, in many a moon: "sheesh")
[Q] From Steve Gearhart: Where does the term baited breath come from, as in: тАШI am waiting with baited breath for your answerтАЩ?
[A] The correct spelling is actually bated breath but itтАЩs so common these days to see it written as baited breath that thereтАЩs every chance that it will soon become the usual form, to the disgust of conservative speakers and the confusion of dictionary writers. Examples in newspapers and magazines are legion; this one appeared in the Daily Mirror on 12 April 2003: тАЬShe hasnтАЩt responded yet but Michael is waiting with baited breathтАЭ.
ItтАЩs easy to mock, but thereтАЩs a real problem here. Bated and baited sound the same and we no longer use bated (let alone the verb to bate), outside this one set phrase, which has become an idiom. Confusion is almost inevitable. Bated here is a contraction of abated through loss of the unstressed first vowel (a process called aphesis); it means тАЬreduced, lessened, lowered in forceтАЭ. So bated breath refers to a state in which you almost stop breathing as a result of some strong emotion, such as terror or awe.
Shakespeare is the first writer known to use it, in The Merchant of Venice, in which Shylock says to Antonio: тАЬShall I bend low and, in a bondmanтАЩs key, / With bated breath and whispтАЩring humbleness, / Say this ...тАЭ. Nearly three centuries later, Mark Twain employed it in Tom Sawyer: тАЬEvery eye fixed itself upon him; with parted lips and bated breath the audience hung upon his words, taking no note of time, rapt in the ghastly fascinations of the taleтАЭ.
For those who know the older spelling or who stop to consider the matter, baited breath evokes an incongruous image; Geoffrey Taylor humorously (and consciously) captured it in verse in his poem Cruel Clever Cat:
Sally, having swallowed cheese,
Directs down holes the scented breeze,
Enticing thus with baited breath
Nice mice to an untimely death.
<< http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bai1.htm >>
Is it bite-size or bite-sized? FarmerтАЩs market, farmers market, or farmersтАЩ market?
Again, according to Merriam-Webster, it is correct to use either тАЬsize.тАЭ The more common usage listed is тАЬbite-sizeтАЭ or тАЬking-size,тАЭ but under variant usage тАЬbite-sizedтАЭ and тАЬking-sizedтАЭ are listed.
The same goes for those farmersтАЩ/farmers/farmerтАЩs markets. As our reader noted, [i]тАЬSheesh! How many ways can you find this expressed on any given day?тАЭ
It would make more sense to use тАЬfarmersтАЩ market,тАЭ as it indicates a market where there is usually more than one farmer selling their wares, but a Google search yields no consistent usage or hard-and-fast rule.
Oh, and one more thing:
Use тАЬbatedтАЭ breath, not тАЬbaitedтАЭ breath. The word тАЬbatedтАЭ is the abbreviated form of тАЬabated,тАЭ which means to subside or put an end to. << http://writersreliefblog.com/?tag=/bate ... ted+breath (http://writersreliefblog.com/?tag=/bated+breath+vs.+baited+breath) >>
What is the origin of "bated breath"?
Dear Straight Dope:
I pride myself on my knowledge of word and expression origins - after all, I have acquired most of it from reading your columns/books for over five years. But recently I was stumped, and even after consulting my Straight Dope Reference Library, I still had no answers.
Pray, could you search your reference library (AKA gray matter) and tell me - what is the origin of "bated breath"? I, and many of my associates, had mistakenly thought it was "baited." As a confessed member of the teeming millions, I can do nothing but embrace my ignorance, and turn to you for guidance.
тАФ Leslie in Wilmington, DE
What, Leslie, you thought maybe people were chewing on worms? If your extensive research had involved a dictionary, you would have easily found the word "bate," meaning:
"To moderate or restrain (a variation of "abate"): to bate one's enthusiasm, and, "to lessen or diminish," and "with bated breath - in a state of suspenseful anticipation."
"Bated breath" has been around a long time. Here's the first cite in the Oxford English Dictionary: "1596 Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice i. iii. 125 'With bated breath, and whispring humblenesse.'"
Maybe someday the Teeming Millions will all invest in a good dictionary, but I won't bate my breath. << http://www.straightdope.com/columns/rea ... ted-breath (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1414/what-is-the-origin-of-bated-breath) >>
Oh, and one more thing: Is it 'Assholes' or 'Arseholes'?
The use of the phrase (being rather ancient, thus the dilemma) is so few and far between that (1) it's easily forgotten, (2) it doesn't really matter anyway, and (3) almost no one ever calls you on it.
But in the "arsehole" thread below, a couple of posters have taken Gone Fishing to task ~ mainly out of pettiness I should add, the comments having precisely zero to do with the thread subject ~ for his use of 'baited' instead of 'bated'.
Following that, and his indubitable fashion at taking umbrage at anyone on the board who should correct him, Gone Fishing, all puffed up to the max male pidgeon-like, this time seems to be on the wrong side of Shakespeare, Mark Twain, poet Geoffrey Taylor(?) and proper english usage in general.
As the article below makes clear, the mistake is so common that to make a Big Hairy Deal about it is to pronounce one's self petty in the extreme.
But in the end, general consensus seems to indicate that the proper word in this hoary old phrase seems to be 'bated' not 'baited'.
(More importantly, deep down in one of these quotes I found a terrific word I haven't used, or heard, in many a moon: "sheesh")
[Q] From Steve Gearhart: Where does the term baited breath come from, as in: тАШI am waiting with baited breath for your answerтАЩ?
[A] The correct spelling is actually bated breath but itтАЩs so common these days to see it written as baited breath that thereтАЩs every chance that it will soon become the usual form, to the disgust of conservative speakers and the confusion of dictionary writers. Examples in newspapers and magazines are legion; this one appeared in the Daily Mirror on 12 April 2003: тАЬShe hasnтАЩt responded yet but Michael is waiting with baited breathтАЭ.
ItтАЩs easy to mock, but thereтАЩs a real problem here. Bated and baited sound the same and we no longer use bated (let alone the verb to bate), outside this one set phrase, which has become an idiom. Confusion is almost inevitable. Bated here is a contraction of abated through loss of the unstressed first vowel (a process called aphesis); it means тАЬreduced, lessened, lowered in forceтАЭ. So bated breath refers to a state in which you almost stop breathing as a result of some strong emotion, such as terror or awe.
Shakespeare is the first writer known to use it, in The Merchant of Venice, in which Shylock says to Antonio: тАЬShall I bend low and, in a bondmanтАЩs key, / With bated breath and whispтАЩring humbleness, / Say this ...тАЭ. Nearly three centuries later, Mark Twain employed it in Tom Sawyer: тАЬEvery eye fixed itself upon him; with parted lips and bated breath the audience hung upon his words, taking no note of time, rapt in the ghastly fascinations of the taleтАЭ.
For those who know the older spelling or who stop to consider the matter, baited breath evokes an incongruous image; Geoffrey Taylor humorously (and consciously) captured it in verse in his poem Cruel Clever Cat:
Sally, having swallowed cheese,
Directs down holes the scented breeze,
Enticing thus with baited breath
Nice mice to an untimely death.
<< http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bai1.htm >>
Is it bite-size or bite-sized? FarmerтАЩs market, farmers market, or farmersтАЩ market?
Again, according to Merriam-Webster, it is correct to use either тАЬsize.тАЭ The more common usage listed is тАЬbite-sizeтАЭ or тАЬking-size,тАЭ but under variant usage тАЬbite-sizedтАЭ and тАЬking-sizedтАЭ are listed.
The same goes for those farmersтАЩ/farmers/farmerтАЩs markets. As our reader noted, [i]тАЬSheesh! How many ways can you find this expressed on any given day?тАЭ
It would make more sense to use тАЬfarmersтАЩ market,тАЭ as it indicates a market where there is usually more than one farmer selling their wares, but a Google search yields no consistent usage or hard-and-fast rule.
Oh, and one more thing:
Use тАЬbatedтАЭ breath, not тАЬbaitedтАЭ breath. The word тАЬbatedтАЭ is the abbreviated form of тАЬabated,тАЭ which means to subside or put an end to. << http://writersreliefblog.com/?tag=/bate ... ted+breath (http://writersreliefblog.com/?tag=/bated+breath+vs.+baited+breath) >>
What is the origin of "bated breath"?
Dear Straight Dope:
I pride myself on my knowledge of word and expression origins - after all, I have acquired most of it from reading your columns/books for over five years. But recently I was stumped, and even after consulting my Straight Dope Reference Library, I still had no answers.
Pray, could you search your reference library (AKA gray matter) and tell me - what is the origin of "bated breath"? I, and many of my associates, had mistakenly thought it was "baited." As a confessed member of the teeming millions, I can do nothing but embrace my ignorance, and turn to you for guidance.
тАФ Leslie in Wilmington, DE
What, Leslie, you thought maybe people were chewing on worms? If your extensive research had involved a dictionary, you would have easily found the word "bate," meaning:
"To moderate or restrain (a variation of "abate"): to bate one's enthusiasm, and, "to lessen or diminish," and "with bated breath - in a state of suspenseful anticipation."
"Bated breath" has been around a long time. Here's the first cite in the Oxford English Dictionary: "1596 Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice i. iii. 125 'With bated breath, and whispring humblenesse.'"
Maybe someday the Teeming Millions will all invest in a good dictionary, but I won't bate my breath. << http://www.straightdope.com/columns/rea ... ted-breath (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1414/what-is-the-origin-of-bated-breath) >>
Oh, and one more thing: Is it 'Assholes' or 'Arseholes'?