Ayndless, adj. breathless. Bruce, X, 609. See aynd.
Bait, vb. to incite. Dunbar, 21127. O. N. bæita, O. Ic. beita. See B-S.
Baith, bath (bēth), pron. both. M. E. bōþe, bāþe, Cu. beatth, Eng. both, O. N. bāðir, O. Dan. bāðe. Skeat.
Baittenin, pr. p. thriving. Jamieson. O. N. batna, Eng. batten. See Skeat, and Kluge and Lutz.
Baittle (bētl), sb. a pasture, a lea which has thick sward of grass. Jamieson, Dumfries. O. N. bæita, "to feed," bæiti, pasturage. Cp. Norse fjellbæite, a mountain pasture.
Ban, vb. to swear, curse. Dunbar, 13, 47; Rolland, II, 680. O. N. banna, to swear, to curse, banna, a curse, Norse banna, to swear, banning, swearing, W. Sw. dial. bænn id., Dan. bande, to swear, to wish one bad luck, O. S. banna id. M. Du. bannen means to excommunicate. This is the L. G. meaning. The Sco. usage is distinctly Scand. It is also a Northern word in Eng. diall. Cp. Shetland to ban, to swear.
Bang, vb. to beat. Sat. P. 39, 150. O. N. banga, O. Sw. banka, Norse, banke, to beat, to strike. Cp. Shetland bonga, in "open de door dat's a bonga," somebody is knocking, literally "it knocks" Norse det banka. Bang is very frequently used in the sense of rushing off, cp. Dalrymple's translation of Leslie, I, 324, 7.
Bangster, sb. a wrangler. Sat. P. 44, 257. Evidently Norse bang + Eng. suffix ster. See bang vb. Cp. camstarrie, where the second syllable corresponds to that in Germ. halsstarrig.
Bark, vb. to tan, to harden. Dunbar F. 202 and 239. Ramsay, I, 164, "barkit lether," tanned leather. O. N. barka, to tan, Norse barka, to tan, to harden, M. E. barkin. General Scand. both sb. and vb. In the sense "to tan" especially W. Scand., cp. Sw. barka, to take the bark off. O. Sw. barka, however, has the meaning "to tan."