Etymograph

English

bail

Bail comes from Old French bailler ‘to deliver or hand over’, from Latin bāiulō ‘carry or bear’, and ultimately from baiulus ‘one who bears burdens, porter, carrier’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEbaiulus‘one who bears burdens, porter, carrier’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEbāiulōas bāiulāre‘carry or bear’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400bailler‘to deliver or hand over’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500baille
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1590bail

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEbaiulus‘one who bears burdens, porter, carrier’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEbāiulōas bāiulāre‘carry or bear’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400bailler‘to deliver or hand over’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500baille
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1590bail

Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book VII, Canto VI: “Silly Faunus now within their baile.”

Every English word from Latin baiulus

Another origin of bail

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰewgʰ-‘to bend’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*beuganą‘to bow, bend’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*baugijaną‘to bend, bow’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*baugijan‘to (cause to) bend, to make bent’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150bīeġan‘to bend or curve’
  6. Old English, derivedc. 450–1150bīeġels‘arch’
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500beyle
  8. Englishtodaybail

Another origin of bail

  1. Frenchc. 1600–presentbaillier
  2. Englishtodaybail

Today it means

noun Security, usually a sum of money, exchanged for the release of an arrested person as a guarantee of that person's appearance for trial.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin baiulus / bail

Shirt and support for this word