bath - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Proto-West Germanic *baþ

Old English bæþ

Middle English bath

English bath

A western-style bath (etymology 1, noun sense 1)

From Middle English bath, baþ, from Old English bæþ (“bath”), from Proto-West Germanic *baþ, from Proto-Germanic *baþą (“bath”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₁- (“to warm”). Corresponding inherited verbs are beath and bathe.

Cognate with Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, and Swedish bad (“bath”), Faroese and Icelandic bað (“bath”), German Bad (“bath”).

bath (plural baths)

  1. A tub or pool which is used for bathing: bathtub.
  2. A building or area where bathing occurs.
    • 1842, Joseph Gwilt, Encyclopaedia of Architecture:
      Among the ancients, the public baths were of amazing extent and magnificence.
  3. (real estate, informal) Clipping of bathroom.
    The master bath has two sinks.
  4. The act of bathing; an instance of this; the taking of a bath.
  5. Specifically, bathing by immersing the body in water, rather than through other means, or an instance of this.
    Do you prefer baths or showers?
  6. An act of immersing the body in a specified substance, especially for hygiene, pleasure, or wellness, or a facility for this: e.g. mud bath, steam bath.
    • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 156:
      Radio-active baths are said to act favourably in a sexual direction. So too with arsenical springs, cold water treatment, and hydrotherapy.
  7. The body of liquid one bathes in.
  8. (by extension) A substance or preparation in which something is immersed.
    a bath of heated sand, ashes, steam, or hot air
    • 1879, Th Du Moncel, The Telephone, the Microphone and the Phonograph, Harper, page 166:
      He takes the prepared charcoal used by artists, brings it to a white heat, and suddenly plunges it in a bath of mercury, of which the globules instantly penetrate the pores of charcoal, and may be said to metallize it.
    • 2026, Katherine Augustine, “Dyeing in the Baking Aisle”, in Spin Off, volume L, number 1, page 35:
      While the yarn is soaking in its water and vinegar bath, I prepare a selection of dyes for my preferred colorway.

tub

building or area where bathing occurs

act of bathing

body of liquid one bathes in

substance or preparation in which something is immersed

bath (third-person singular simple present baths, present participle bathing, simple past and past participle bathed)

  1. (transitive, Commonwealth) To wash a person or animal in a bath.
    • 1990, Mukti Jain Campion, The Baby Challenge: A handbook on pregnancy for women with a physical disability.‎[1], →ISBN, page 41:
      Somewhere to bath the baby: don't invest in a plastic baby bath. The bathroom handbasin is usually a much more convenient place to bath the baby. If your partner is more able, this could be a task he might take on as his, bathing the baby in a basin or plastic bown on the floor.
    • 2006, Sue Dallas, Diana North, Joanne Angus, Grooming Manual for the Dog and Cat‎[2], →ISBN, page 91:
      For grooming at home, obviously the choice is yours whether you wish to bath the dog in your own bath or sink, or if you want to buy one specifically for the purpose.
    • 2007, Robin Barker, Baby Love‎[3], →ISBN, page 179:
      If you find bathing stressfull during the first six weeks, only bath your baby once or twice a week.
  2. (intransitive, informal, Commonwealth) To bathe (oneself); to have a bath.
    • 1815, anonymous author, The Observant Pedestrian Mounted‎[4], volume 3:
      “Oh, dear no, not me; I never bath, ’tis the cat has been bathing, in a warm sea bath; I’ll tell you how I manage: I bought a large pickle-jar, and so I have it filled every morning with hot sea water, proportionate to the thermometerical heat my finger can bear, and that I stile Tink-a-tink’s bath; in which I immerge him all but his head, for a quarter of an hour; and he looks so pretty, and receives so much benefit, you would be surprised.”
    • 1912, James Ward, quotee, “Report on the Royal Commission on Mines”, in Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives of New Zealand‎[5], Wellington, page 141:
      A man's home may be handy to the mine, in which case he would not need to lose the bath, but if he lived any distance away he would bath at the mine.
    • 2007, “Doctors, Regeneration, and the Revolutionary Crucible, 1789-1804”, in Sean M. Quinlan, The Great Nation in Decline (The History of Medicine in Context)‎[6], Aldershot: Ashgate, →ISBN, page 140:
      In a flight of fancy, Millot even wanted to create public bath houses alongside the Seine, so young children could bath in the river’s healthful waters.
    • 2017 February 9, “Very Early Spring”, in Jean A. Stockdale, My Spring: Royal Times and Ordinary Lives‎[7], Troubador Publishing, →ISBN, page 17:
      Parents would bath after all the children had gone to bed or older children sent into the front room.

to wash in a bath

From Hebrew בַּת (baṯ).

bath (plural baths)

  1. (historical units of measure) A former Hebrew unit of liquid volume (about 23 L or 6 gallons).
    • 1769, Bible (KJV), Ezekiel, 45:10–11:
      Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the ephah the tenth part of an homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer.

unit of liquid volume

Uncertain; possibly from Proto-Celtic *batto-. Cognate with Welsh bath.

bath m (plural bathow)

  1. coin

Borrowed from English bath.

bath m (plural bathys)

  1. bath

From English proper noun Bath where this paper was originally made.

bath m (plural baths)

  1. English high quality letter paper popular in the 19th century

bath (plural baths)

  1. (dated) super, great, smashing; beautiful, fine, good, pleasant

Proto-West Germanic *baþ

Old English bæþ

Middle English bath

Inherited from Old English bæþ, from Proto-West Germanic *baþ, from Proto-Germanic *baþą.

bath (plural bathes or (early) baðen)

  1. A bath (body of liquid for bathing):
    1. A medicinal or curative bath.
    2. A spiritually cleansing bath.
    3. (alchemy, rare) A bath for distilling water.
  2. A bathhouse; a place for bathing.
  3. A bathing (process of having a bath)

bath

  1. (Northern) alternative form of bothe (“both”)

bath

  1. (Northern) alternative form of bothe (“both”)

bath

  1. (Northern) alternative form of bothe (“both”)

Probably from Proto-Celtic *batto-; according to the GPC, possibly related to Latin battuo (“to fight, pound, beat (up)”), though the semantics are far from certain.[1]

bath m (plural bathau)

  1. (obsolete) kind, sort
    Synonyms: math, siort, teip
  2. stamp, coin

bath m (plural baths)

  1. alternative spelling of bàth (“bath, bath tub”)

bath m (plural baths)

  1. alternative spelling of bàth (“bath (unit of liquid volume)”)

  2. ^ R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke, et al., editors (1950–present), “bath”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

From Middle English bat, from Old English batt (“bat, club, cudgel”), probably of Celtic origin.

bath (plural bathès)

  1. bat, stick