different between flail vs baste

English

Etymology

From Middle English flaile, flayle, from earlier fleil, fleyl, fle??l, flegl, from Old English fligel, *flegel (“flail”), from Proto-Germanic *flagilaz (“flail, whip”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to Old French fil and Latin f?lum ("a fine thread or wire, a filament", i.e. a defiling instrument for the thrashing of a wire). Cognate with Scots flail (“a thresher's flail”), West Frisian fleil, flaaiel (“flail”), Dutch vlegel (“flail”), Low German vlegel (“flail”), German Flegel (“flail”). Possibly a native Germanic word from Proto-Germanic *flag-, *flah- (“to whip, beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh?k- (“to beat, hit, strike; weep”); compare Lithuanian plàkti (“to whip, lash, flog”), Ancient Greek ????????? (pl?gnúnai, “strike, hit, encounter”), Latin plang? (“lament”, i.e. “beat one's breast”) + Proto-Germanic *-ilaz (instrumental suffix); or a borrowing of Latin flagellum, diminutive of flagrum (“scourge, whip”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?lag-, *b?la?- (“to beat”); compare Old Norse blekkja (“to beat, mistreat”). Compare also Old French flael (“flail”), Walloon flayea (“flail”) (locally pronounced "flai"), Italian flagello (“scourge, whip, plague”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fle?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l

Noun

flail (plural flails)

1. A tool used for threshing, consisting of a long handle with a shorter stick attached with a short piece of chain, thong or similar material.
2. A weapon which has the (usually spherical) striking part attached to the handle with a flexible joint such as a chain.

Synonyms

• threshel, thrashel

Quotations

• 1631 — John Milton, L'Allegro

  When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
  His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn
  That ten day-labourers could not end;

• 1816 — Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan

  Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
  Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail

• 1842 — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Slave in the Dismal Swamp

  On him alone the curse of Cain
  Fell, like a flail on the garnered grain,
  And struck him to the earth!

• 1879 — Henry George, Progress and Poverty, ch V

  If the farmer must use the spade because he has not capital enough for a plough, the sickle instead of the reaping machine, the flail instead of the thresher...

Translations

Coordinate terms

• (weapon): nunchaku

Verb

flail (third-person singular simple present flails, present participle flailing, simple past and past participle flailed)

1. (transitive) To beat using a flail or similar implement.
2. (transitive) To wave or swing vigorously

   Synonym: thrash

   • 1937, H. P. Lovecraft, The Evil Clergyman

     He stopped in his tracks – then, flailing his arms wildly in the air, began to stagger backwards.

3. (transitive) To thresh.
4. (intransitive) To move like a flail.

Translations

See also

• flail on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Flail in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /be?st/
• Rhymes: -e?st
• Homophone: based

Etymology 1

Late Middle English, from Old French bastir (“build, construct, sew up (a garment)”).

Verb

baste (third-person singular simple present bastes, present participle basting, simple past and past participle basted)

1. To sew with long or loose stitches, as for temporary use, or in preparation for gathering the fabric.

Translations

Etymology 2

Middle English basten, of uncertain etymon, possibly from Old French basser (“moisten, soak”), from bacin (“basin”).

Verb

baste (third-person singular simple present bastes, present participle basting, simple past and past participle basted)

1. To sprinkle flour and salt and drip butter or fat on, as on meat in roasting.
2. (by extension) To coat over something.
3. To mark (sheep, etc.) with tar.

Translations

Noun

baste (plural bastes)

1. A basting; a sprinkling of drippings etc. in cooking.
   • 1876, The Odd Fellow's Companion

     "Just like a leg of mutton being roasted before a slow fire without any one to give it a baste," groaned the old man.

Etymology 3

Perhaps from the cookery sense of baste or from some Scandinavian etymon. Compare Old Norse beysta (“to beat, thresh”) (whenceDanish børste (“to beat up”)). Compare alsoSwedish basa (“to beat with a rod, to flog”) andSwedish bösta (“to thump”).Might be related French bâton (formerly baston), which means stick (English baton comes from bâton) ; see also French bastonnade, the act of beating with a stick.

Verb

baste (third-person singular simple present bastes, present participle basting, simple past and past participle basted)

1. (archaic, slang) To beat with a stick; to cudgel.
   • July 1660, Samuel Pepys, Diaries

     One man was basted by the keeper for carrying some people over on his back through the waters.

Translations

References

• [Francis] Grose [et al.] (1811) , “Baste”, in Lexicon Balatronicum. A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence. […], London: Printed for C. Chappell, […], OCLC 23927885.

Anagrams

• Bates, Beast, Sebat, abets, bates, beast, beats, besat, betas, esbat, tabes

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

baste

1. singular past indicative and subjunctive of bassen

Anagrams

• batse, besta

French

Noun

baste m (plural bastes)

1. ace of clubs

Noun

baste f (plural bastes)

1. basque (clothing)

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English bæst.

Noun

baste

1. Alternative form of bast (“bast”)

Etymology 2

From Old French bast.

Noun

baste

1. Alternative form of base (“illegitimacy”)

Northern Sami

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• (Kautokeino) IPA^(key): /?pas?te/

Noun

baste

1. spoon

Inflection

Derived terms

• deadjabaste

Further reading

• Koponen, Eino; Ruppel, Klaas; Aapala, Kirsti, editors (2002-2008) Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages?^[3], Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland

Portuguese

Verb

baste

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of bastar
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of bastar
3. third-person singular imperative of bastar

Spanish

Verb

baste

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of bastar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of bastar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of bastar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of bastar.