bight n.

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to bend," with derivatives referring to bent, pliable, or curved objects.

It forms all or part of: akimbo; bagel; bight; bog; bow (v.) "to bend the body;" bow (n.1) "weapon for shooting arrows;" bow (n.2) "front of a ship;" bowsprit; buxom; elbow.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit bhujati "bends, thrusts aside;" Old English bugan, German biegen, Gothic biugan "to bend;" Old High German boug, Old English beag "a ring."

1540s, "a roundabout way" (obsolete), from Middle English bught, probably from an unrecorded Old English variant of byht "a bend," from Proto-Germanic *bukhta- (see bight (n.)). The sense evolved from "a circuit of any kind" (as of a plow) to "a round at any kind of exercise" (1570s), "a round at fighting" (1590s), "a fit of drinking" (1660s), and "a fit of illness" (by 1938).