The Surprising Origin Of Bated Breath

People often misspell this phrase as baited, but it is actually a shortened form of abated. It describes the act of holding your breath to suppress it during intense excitement or fear.

The term comes from the verb abate, which means to lessen or lower. When Shakespeare used it in The Merchant of Venice, he meant holding your breath so low that it stops. Over centuries, the spelling shifted as people forgot the original word. It is a perfect example of how language evolves when the roots of our common expressions fade from memory.