bay [ME] Hounds have bayed since the Middle Ages. Like *bark, the word probably imitates the sound. People can now also bay for blood [E20th], when they call loudly for someone to be punished. The related phrase at bay [ME] comes from hunting and originally meant ‘cornered, forced to face one’s attackers’. The geographical bay [LME] can be traced back to Old French baie, from Old Spanish bahia, but no further. The bay tree [LME] came via Old French from Latin bāca ‘berry’, and the type of bay found in a bay window, also Late Middle English, comes from Old French baie, from the verb baer ‘to gape’. This is also, via baif ‘open-mouthed’ the source of bevel [L16th], which originally meant ‘oblique’. See also baize.