Where did the phrase, "waiting with baited breath" come from?

Answer 1

It's misspelled. It should be "bated" and is a contraction of "abated." According to this website, http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0306b&L=worldwidewords&P=92, "...it has the meaning 'reduced, lessened, lowered in force...So "bated breath" refers to a state in which you almost stop breathing
through terror, awe, extreme anticipation, or anxiety.

"Shakespeare is the first writer known to use it, in The Merchant of
Venice: "Shall I bend low and, in a bondman's key, / With bated
breath and whisp'ring humbleness, / Say this ..."

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Where did the phrase, "waiting with baited breath" come from?

Answer 3

Actually, the person who sent this in said "baited" and not "bated." I should say something about that, but as you know it is not in my pleasant nature to be snarky.

Bated is a contraction of "abate" and dates to the 14th century, when it meant to restrain or deprive or lessen.

So if you are waiting with bated breath you are sort of drawing in your breath in anticipation of some event.

Shakespeare is thought to be the first writer to use the phrase "bated breath" when in The Merchant of Venice one of the characters says:

"Shall I bend low and, in a bondman's key,

With bated breath and whisp'ring humbleness?"

Answer 4

The correct spelling is actually bated breath but it’s so common these days to see it written as baited breath that there’s every chance it will soon become the usual form, to the disgust of conservative speakers and the confusion of dictionary writers. Examples in newspapers and magazines are legion; this one appeared in the Daily Mirror on 12 April 2003: “She hasn’t responded yet but Michael is waiting with baited breath”.

It’s easy to mock, but there’s a real problem here. Bated and baited sound the same and we no longer use bated (let alone the verb to bate), outside this one set phrase, which has become an idiom. Confusion is almost inevitable. Bated here is a contraction of abated through loss of the unstressed first vowel (a process called aphesis); it has the meaning “reduced, lessened, lowered in force”. So bated breath refers to a state in which you almost stop breathing through terror, awe, extreme anticipation, or anxiety.

Shakespeare is the first writer known to use it, in The Merchant of Venice: “Shall I bend low and, in a bondman’s key, / With bated breath and whisp’ring humbleness, / Say this ...”. Nearly three centuries later, Mark Twain employed it in Tom Sawyer: “Every eye fixed itself upon him; with parted lips and bated breath the audience hung upon his words, taking no note of time, rapt in the ghastly fascinations of the tale”.

For those who know the older spelling or who stop to consider the matter, baited breath evokes an incongruous image, which Geoffrey Taylor humorously (and consciously) captured in verse in his poem Cruel Clever Cat:

Sally, having swallowed cheese,
Directs down holes the scented breeze,
Enticing thus with baited breath
Nice mice to an untimely death.

Answer 5

By the way the correct phrase is, "With bated breath!"
Meaning: Anxiously, with great anticipation.
Example: The trial decision was awaited with bated breath.
Origin: "Bated" is a shortened version of "abated", which means "to slow down". In the case of "bated breath" this would mean to slow down your breathing or hold your breath.
Curiously, people hold their breath when in anticipation. Perhaps so as not to be distracted by breathing.
"Bated" is no longer commonly used, causing people to believe the expression to be "with baited breath". This common misspelling leads to confusion and strange imagery.

Answer 6

I think it is a construct of writers to describe tension.
I was waiting with baited breath for the door to open. What would come out of the room when it did? Freedom, death or ???

Answer 7

From a funny guy who liked bait. lol
It is archaic usage rooted in 'abait', meaning 'to delay'. So 'to wait with baited breath' means to hold one's breath until the answer is heard, as in total concentration.

Answer 8

It's "bated" which is a contraction of "abated" and I think it originated with Shakespeare.

Answer 9

Shakespeare
more info in depth at the link...

Answer 10

anticipation of the immediate unknown.