groukas has adopted no words, looked up 0 words, created 0 lists, listed 0 words, written 1 comment, added 0 tags, and loved 0 words.
groukas has adopted no words, looked up 0 words, created 0 lists, listed 0 words, written 1 comment, added 0 tags, and loved 0 words.
Comments by groukas
groukas commented on the word bated breath
The phrase is from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, 1596:
"With bated breath, and whispring humblenesse."
It's a contraction of "abated breath," or "stopped breath." Imagine the gap in breathing that occurs right after a gasp or the cessation of breath that happens when you see something astonishing. It's very often misspelled "baited breath."
July 18, 2009