bath

Etymology 1

From Middle English bath, baþ, from Old English bæþ (“bath”), from Proto-West Germanic *baþ, from Proto-Germanic *baþą (“bath”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₁- (“to warm”). Corresponding inherited verbs are beath and bathe.

noun

1. A tub or pool which is used for bathing: bathtub.
2. A building or area where bathing occurs.
   Among the ancients, the public baths were of amazing extent and magnificence. 1842, Joseph Gwilt, Encyclopaedia of Architecture
3. (real estate, informal) Clipping of bathroom.
   The master bath has two sinks.
4. The act of bathing.
5. The body of liquid one bathes in.
6. (by extension) A substance or preparation in which something is immersed.
   a bath of heated sand, ashes, steam, or hot air
   He takes the prepared charcoal used by artists, brings it to a white heat, and suddenly plunges it in a bath of mercury, of which the globules instantly penetrate the pores of charcoal, and may be said to metallize it. 1879, Th Du Moncel, The Telephone, the Microphone and the Phonograph, Harper, page 166

verb

1. (transitive, Commonwealth) To wash a person or animal in a bath.
   Somewhere to bath the baby: don't invest in a plastic baby bath. The bathroom handbasin is usually a much more convenient place to bath the baby. If your partner is more able, this could be a task he might take on as his, bathing the baby in a basin or plastic bown on the floor. 1990, Mukti Jain Campion, The Baby Challenge: A handbook on pregnancy for women with a physical disability., page 41
   For grooming at home, obviously the choice is yours whether you wish to bath the dog in your own bath or sink, or if you want to buy one specifically for the purpose. 2006, Sue Dallas, Diana North, Joanne Angus, Grooming Manual for the Dog and Cat, page 91
   If you find bathing stressfull during the first six weeks, only bath your baby once or twice a week. 2007, Robin Barker, Baby Love, page 179
2. (intransitive, informal, Commonwealth) To bathe (oneself); to have a bath.
   A man's home may be handy to the mine, in which case he would not need to lose the bath, but if he lived any distance away he would bath at the mine. 1912, James Ward, quotee, “Report on the Royal Commission on Mines”, in Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives of New Zealand, Wellington, page 141
   In a flight of fancy, Millot even wanted to create public bath houses alongside the Seine, so young children could bath in the river’s healthful waters. 2007, “Doctors, Regeneration, and the Revolutionary Crucible, 1789-1804”, in Sean M. Quinlan, The Great Nation in Decline (The History of Medicine in Context), Aldershot: Ashgate, page 140
   Parents would bath after all the children had gone to bed or older children sent into the front room. 9 February 2017, “Very Early Spring”, in Jean A. Stockdale, My Spring: Royal Times and Ordinary Lives, Troubador Publishing, page 17

Etymology 2

From Hebrew בַּת (baṯ).

noun

1. (historical units of measure) A former Hebrew unit of liquid volume (about 23 L or 6 gallons).
   Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the ephah the tenth part of an homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer. 1769, Bible (KJV), Ezekiel, 45:10–11