English

bad

/bæd/
Of low quality.

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    Origin

    Etymology 1

    From Middle English bad, badde (“wicked, evil, depraved”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps a shortening of Old English bæddel (“hermaphrodite”) (for loss of -el compare Middle English muche from Old English myċel, and Middle English wenche from Old English wenċel), or at least related to it and/or to bǣ̆dan (“to defile”), compare Old High German pad (“hermaphrodite”).

    Alternatively, perhaps a loan from Old Norse into Middle English, compare Norwegian bad (“effort, trouble, fear”, neuter noun), East Danish bad (“damage, destruction, fight”, neuter noun), from the Proto-Germanic noun *badą, whence also Proto-Germanic *badōną (“to frighten”), Old Saxon undarbadōn (“to frighten”), Norwegian Nynorsk bada (“to weigh down, press”); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰedʰ- (“to bend, press, push, oppress”). False cognate of Persian بد (bad).

    Etymology 3

    Unknown.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishbadde
    • rootProto-Indo-European*bʰedʰ- “to dig; to stab”
    • rootProto-Indo-European*bʰeydʰ- “to command, to persuade, to trust”

    Related: Old High German pad, Norwegian bad, Danish bad, Old Saxon undarbadōn, Norwegian Nynorsk bada, Persian بد

    Words built on it: bad-looking, bad business

    Sources