At bay = in danger?

At bay = in danger? But to take a look at the context below, it isn't.

Hello, I'm back.

I checked in my big dictionary into the origin of the phrase "at bay", and came up with the following.

(I'm aware of course that the question was about the meaning of the phrase, and not about its origin: nevertheless I think it's interesting, and often helpful, to find out these things.)

bay (iv)

i) The deep prolonged barking of a dog while hunting
ii) esp. the chorus raised by hounds in conflict with the quarry; hence, the final conflict with the quarry
iii) used of the position of a hunted animal, when obliged to turn and defend itself (to turn to bay, to be at bay)
iv) of the action of the hunted animal: to hold or keep at bay the hounds.

So, to keep something at bay, you are holding it off, keeping it away, fending it off, protecting yourself against it.

Looks like a winner there McT.

Interesting, I agree, McTag, but I don't believe that it is all that helpful to any learner of the language. All the illustrious folk here knew the meaning and how to use it but none really knew the origins of the word.

Let's just imagine for a moment that the origin of the idiom, 'at bay', is the one proffered by Ionus. That doesn't change how we use it in the English of today, nor does it in any way affect its current meaning.

Did anyone notice that to hold ships at bay would be keeping the anciene and modern meanings of the word whilst employing a pun of sorts ? Nautical use helped words and meanings survive as well as spread. In many cases nautical words were original but there were also many adaptations and borrowings of older words.

An example would be the ship class name of sloop. It probably comes from old english too, the word slupan meaning to glide, but was named by a scottish woman using the Dutch word sloep, a derivative from a common root word sharing english and dutch descendants.

There cant be too many of us who have been hunting with the hounds lately, but the baying of the hounds would give us a name for a cornered animal, being at bay, or being barked at by the dogs who otherwise would be busy running and not barking as much. At bay would mean barked at, but we have the visual meaning of being held at a safe distance that has kept the word alive.

Correct me if I am wrong, but didnt I say it meant to keep at a safe distance and that was where the debate had common ground/water ?

I did and it makes sense, Ionus. It's just not completely clear where the word came from and frankly scarlett, I don't give a damn.

Every aspect of life has helped words and meanings survive and spread or not. That's what life does, provides a context for words to develop meanings, lose meanings, develop new or slightly altered meanings and then do it all over again, or not.