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Am I waiting with *bated* breath or with *baited* breath?
Last edited Sun May 10, 2015, 04:04 PM - Edit history (1)
from http://www.worldwidewords.org, one of my favorite stops after log on in the am.
The correct spelling is actually bated breath but it’s so common these days to see it written as baited breath that there’s every chance that it will soon become the usual form, to the disgust of conservative speakers and the confusion of dictionary writers.
It’s easy to mock, but there’s 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 “reduced, lessened, lowered in force”.
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:
“Shall I bend low and, in a bondman’s key, / With bated breath and whisp’ring humbleness, / Say this ...”.
Nearly three centuries later, Mark Twain employed it in Tom Sawyer: “Every 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 tale”.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bai1.htm
It’s easy to mock, but there’s 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 “reduced, lessened, lowered in force”.
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:
“Shall I bend low and, in a bondman’s key, / With bated breath and whisp’ring humbleness, / Say this ...”.
Nearly three centuries later, Mark Twain employed it in Tom Sawyer: “Every 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 tale”.
Apparently either use is, for now, "correct".
14 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
As a bit of a grammar Nazi, 3rd class, I cringe when I see it. Thanks for the etymology, I didn't know that. I just knew the correct usage, and I've suffered for it.
(Late note: I had to look up etymology to get that right. 
)
Didn't know there was a poetic use of the term, though.
just put "baited breath" in the DU site search.
