bay

See also: Bay, bây, bẫy, bảy, baþ, and бау

English

Pronunciation

  • enPR: bā, IPA(key): /beɪ/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪ

Etymology 1

From Middle English baye, baie, from Old English beġ (“berry”), as in beġbēam (“berry-tree”), conflated with Old French baie, from Latin bāca (“berry”).

Noun

bay (plural bays)

  1. (obsolete) A berry.
  2. Laurus nobilis, a tree or shrub of the family Lauraceae, having dark green leaves and berries.
  3. Bay leaf, the leaf of this or certain other species of tree or shrub, used as a herb.
  4. (in the plural, now rare) The leaves of this shrub, woven into a garland used to reward a champion or victor; hence, fame, victory.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.i:
      both you here with many a cursed oth, / Sweare she is yours, and stirre vp bloudie frayes, / To win a willow bough, whilest other weares the bayes.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Trumbull
      The patriot's honours and the poet's bays.
  5. (US, dialect) A tract covered with bay trees.
  6. A kind of mahogany obtained from Campeche in Mexico.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From French baie, from Late Latin baia, probably ultimately from Iberian.

Noun

bay (plural bays)

  1. (geography) A body of water (especially the sea) more or less three-quarters surrounded by land.
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.
  2. A bank or dam to keep back water.
Synonyms
  • (body of water): gulf
Derived terms
Translations
body of water

Etymology 3

From French baie, from Old French baé, masculine singular past participle of the verb baer, from Vulgar Latin *badō (“I am open”).

Noun

bay (plural bays)

  1. An opening in a wall, especially between two columns.
  2. An internal recess; a compartment or area surrounded on three sides.
    • 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):
      A “moving platform” scheme […] is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays.
  3. The distance between two supports in a vault or building with a pitched roof.
  4. (nautical) Each of the spaces, port and starboard, between decks, forward of the bitts, in sailing warships.
  5. (rail transport) A bay platform.
  6. A bay window.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 4

From Old French bay, combined with aphesized form of abay; verbal form Old French baier, abaier.

Noun

bay (plural bays)

  1. The excited howling of dogs when hunting or being attacked.
    • c. 1588–1593, Shakespeare, William, Titus Andronicus, act 2, scene 2, lines 1–6:
      The hunt is up, the morn is bright and grey, / The fields are fragrant, and the woods are green. / Uncouple here, and let us make a bay / And wake the Emperor and his lovely bride, / And rouse the Prince, and ring a hunter's peal, / That all the court may echo with the noise.
  2. (by extension) The climactic confrontation between hunting-dogs and their prey.
  3. (figuratively) A state of being obliged to face an antagonist or a difficulty, when escape has become impossible.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden
      Embolden'd by despair, he stood at bay.
    • (Can we date this quote?) I. Taylor
      The most terrible evils are just kept at bay by incessant efforts.
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

bay (third-person singular simple present bays, present participle baying, simple past and past participle bayed)

  1. (intransitive) To howl.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden
      The hounds at nearer distance hoarsely bayed.
  2. (transitive) To bark at; hence, to follow with barking; to bring or drive to bay.
    to bay the bear
    • a. 1611, Shakespeare, William, Cymbeline, act 5, scene 5, lines 222–223:
      Spit, and throw stones, cast mire upon me, set / The dogs o'th' street to bay me:
  3. (transitive) To pursue noisily, like a pack of hounds.
Derived terms
  • bay at the moon
Translations

Etymology 5

From French baie, from Latin badius (“reddish brown, chestnut”).

Adjective

bay (comparative more bay, superlative most bay)

  1. Of a reddish-brown colour (especially of horses).
Derived terms
Translations

Noun

bay (uncountable)

  1. A brown colour/color of the coat of some horses.
    bay colour:  
  2. A horse of this color.
Quotations
  • For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:bay.
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

See also

Anagrams

Cebuano

Etymology 1

Initial clipping of abay.

Noun

bay

  1. an address to a male friend

Etymology 2

Compare balay.

Noun

bay

  1. a house

Cornish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [bæi]

Noun

bay m (plural bayow)

  1. kiss

Mutation

Synonyms

Crimean Tatar

Adjective

bay

  1. rich

Declension

Haitian Creole

Verb

bay

  1. to give

Synonyms

Hone

Noun

bay

  1. dog

Further reading

  • Anne Storch, Hone, in Coding Participant Marking: Construction Types in Twelve African Languages, edited by Gerrit Jan Dimmendaal

Turkish

Etymology

From Old Turkic 𐰉𐰖‎ (b¹j¹, bay, “rich person, noble”), from Proto-Turkic *bāj (“rich, noble; many, numerous”), possibly from Proto-Altaic *bēǯu (“numerous, great”),[1] Related to common Turkic бай, not related to bey.

The meaning “sir, gentleman” was coined during the language reforms in parallel to bey.[2]

Noun

bay (definite accusative bayı, plural baylar)

  1. (countable) gentleman
  2. (title used for a man) Mr.

Declension

Inflection
Nominative bay
Definite accusative bayı
Singular Plural
Nominative bay baylar
Definite accusative bayı bayları
Dative baya baylara
Locative bayda baylarda
Ablative baydan baylardan
Genitive bayın bayların
Possessive forms
Singular Plural
1st singular bayım baylarım
2nd singular bayın bayların
3rd singular bayı bayları
1st plural bayımız baylarımız
2nd plural bayınız baylarınız
3rd plural bayları bayları

Usage notes

Used as a title, the word is usually capitalized and followed by a person's name, often his surname or full name (as in “Bay Ahmet Şık”). This is unlike the more traditional title bey, which is used after a person's name, most commonly just his given name (as in “Ahmet Bey”).

Synonyms

Derived terms

Adjective

bay (comparative daha bay, superlative en bay)

  1. (dated) rich, wealthy

Declension

Inflection
Nominative bay
Definite accusative bayı
Singular Plural
Nominative bay baylar
Definite accusative bayı bayları
Dative baya baylara
Locative bayda baylarda
Ablative baydan baylardan
Genitive bayın bayların
Predicative forms
Singular Plural
1st singular bayım baylarım
2nd singular baysın baylarsın
3rd singular bay
baydır		 baylar
baylardır
1st plural bayız baylarız
2nd plural baysınız baylarsınız
3rd plural baylar baylardır

Synonyms

Antonyms

References

  1. ↑ Starostin, Sergei; Dybo, Anna; Mudrak, Oleg (2003) Etymological dictionary of the Altaic languages (Handbuch der Orientalistik; VIII.8), Leiden, New York, Köln: E.J. Brill: “*bēǯu”
  2. ↑ Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–), “bay”, in Nişanyan Sözlük

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Proto-Mon-Khmer *par; cognates include Bahnar păr, Pacoh pár and Mon ပဝ် (pɔ).

Verb

bay (𠖤, 𩙻)

  1. to fly (travel through the air)
  2. to flutter (flap or wave quickly but irregularly)
  3. to fly (travel very fast)
  4. to fade away
Derived terms

Adverb

bay

  1. with ease; in a fast-paced manner
    cãi bay
    to snap at each other

Etymology 2

Noun

(classifier cái) bay (𨭍)

  1. trowel

Etymology 3

See bây.

Pronoun

bay

  1. (informal) you (second-person plural)
Alternative forms

References

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