badbad

The story

Perhaps a shortening of Old English bæddel (‘hermaphrodite’) (for loss of -el compare Middle English muche from Old English myċel, and Middle English wenche from Old English wenċel), or at least related to it and/or to bǣ̆dan (‘to defile’), compare Old High German pad (‘hermaphrodite’). Alternatively, perhaps a loan from Old Norse into Middle English, compare Norwegian bad (“effort, trouble, fear”, neuter noun), East Danish bad (“damage, destruction, fight”, neuter noun), from the Proto-Germanic noun *badą, whence also Proto-Germanic *badōną (‘to frighten’), Old Saxon undarbadōn (‘to frighten’), Norwegian Nynorsk bada (‘to weigh down, press’); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰedʰ- (‘to bend, press, push, oppress’).1disputed Scholars disagree here; the competing view is quoted as the source gives it.