Keeping At Bay

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Stacey from Oskosh, Wisconsin.

Welcome to the show, Stacey.

How can we help you, Stacey?

I actually just have a question about a general, I guess, term of speech that I come across a lot.

And my friend and I were using it, and I got to thinking, I wonder where that came from or the origination of it.

And the phrase is, keep them at bay.

Keep them at bay. And what made you think about this?

So I have a newborn.

Oh, congratulations.

Thank you very much.

I was speaking with one of my friends about the fact that, you know, oftentimes people will try to come up and touch your child or touch you while you’re pregnant.

And I said I must have been making awful faces because nobody had been doing it.

I must have been keeping them at bay.

Okay.

That’s what it takes, right?

A big scowl to keep the touchers away.

Well, yes, pretty much.

And it’s working for you, it sounds like.

It does.

And then I asked her if she knew where it was from, and she thought maybe it was a navel expression, which found perfectly reasonable to me, but I didn’t know if that was particularly right.

A navel expression.

How would it be a navel expression?

She mentioned that she thought maybe it was to keep them out in the bay, like away from the docks.

Oh.

Interesting.

Okay.

Yeah.

That would seem to make sense.

But that’s not it, right?

But that’s not the answer.

Oh, okay.

The answer has to do with the baying of hounds during a hunt.

You know, there’s that really dramatic moment in a hunt where the prey has run and run and run and run, and finally it can run no more, and it turns and it faces its attackers.

And all the dogs are there barking and barking and barking.

They’re baying at the animal, the poor hunted animal.

So the baying is the noise that the dogs make.

Yes.

Yeah, like baying at the moon.

So the fox or the deer or whatever is cornered can’t get away and decides to fight it out.

Yeah, turn and face, or they’re just frozen there looking.

It’s that moment.

So they’re literally held at bay by the barking of the dogs.

Exactly.

And so I guess, you know, if you’re sort of gnashing your teeth at these people who are trying to approach your baby, it’s sort of the same thing.

I guess.

Is that a fairly old expression, or is that a pretty recent thing?

Oh, it’s very old.

1,300s at least?

Yeah.

Yeah, hundreds and hundreds of years.

Yeah, so this goes back to a time when we were a people who hunted in that way with animals in the woods or the fields and chased down our prey.

Absolutely.

Well, I really appreciate it.

You guys are absolutely my favorite show that I hear on the radio.

I’m really excited to be able to talk to you.

Nice.

Thanks.

Thank you very much, and congratulations on the baby.

Good luck to that sweet thing.

Thank you very much.

Are you going to play our show for your newborn?

I already do every Sunday at 9.

You do?

Go to sleep.

You do?

Well, tell us your baby’s name.

We won’t get too close, but tell us your baby’s name.

Vivian.

Vivian.

All right.

Good night, Vivian.

Thank you.

Thanks, Stacey.

Bye-bye.

Good night, Stacey.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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