Etymology: Origin unknown. Perhaps originally, as in quot. ?a1325, a pet name for a cat. Perhaps compare baudrons n.

Etymology: Origin uncertain. Perhaps related to Old English bæddel hermaphrodite, effeminate or homosexual man (quantity of stem vowel uncertain: see badling n.¹): it has been suggested that bad adj. could perhaps show the reflex of bæddel , with loss of -l as also in much adj. and wench n., although the phonetic environment differs significantly; with the semantic development perhaps compare more general use of badling n.¹ (a derivative of bæddel ) as a term of abuse or contempt, although this is poorly attested; with the assumed development of adjectival use compare wretch adj., erming n.¹Old English bæddel is recorded only in glossarial sources; compare:OE Antwerp Gloss. (1955) 52 Anareporesis .i. homo utriusque generis, bæddel.OE Antwerp Gloss. (1955) 177 Hermafroditus, wæpenwifestre uel scritta uel bæddel. It is possible that the word is found also in place names, but these could alternatively be explained as from a personal name *Bæddel , pet-form of Badda (see below). It is perhaps ultimately < Old English bǣdan to force, constrain, impel, to require, demand, exact, to urge, incite, cognate with Old Saxon bēdian to drive on, force, Old High German beiten to force, to request, require, Old Icelandic beiða to ask, beg, to hunt, chase, Gothic baidjan to compel, exercise a moral constraint (probably ultimately a derivative formation < the same base as bide v.), although perhaps compare also Old English bǣdan to defile (of uncertain origin, and recorded in only a single attestation, which could alternatively be interpreted as showing an example of bǣdan to force, above). A suggested derivation of bad adj. directly < gebǣded , past participle of bǣdan , is less likely, although for the suggested semantic development compare the development of French chétif , ultimately < classical Latin captīvus (see caitiff n.). bad adj. is earliest attested as an element in surnames (compare quots. 1203 at sense A. 1a, 1276 at sense A. 1b). It is uncertain whether the Middle English surname Badde , Badd shows this word (compare William Badde (1221), Petri Badde (1264), etc.), or alternatively the Old English personal name Badda . It is also possible that Old English Badda could itself be related, but there is no positive evidence to support this supposition. On the possibility of the word's occurrence in Old English place names (and hence an argument that bad adj. is the reflex of an unattested Old English form *badda of which bæddel is probably a derivative, rather than vice versa) see R. Coates ‘Middle English badde and related puzzles’ in North-Western European Language Evolution 11 (1988) 91–104. The inflected comparative and superlative badder and baddest were gradually replaced in standard English by the suppletive forms worse adj. and worst adj. during the later Middle English and early modern periods, as bad adj. gradually became more common in senses which were previously more commonly expressed by ill adj. or evil adj.; for early examples of worse and worst as the comparative and superlative forms corresponding to bad bad adj. compare the following (and also e.g. quots. 1440 at worst adj. 1, 1579 at worse adj. and n. Phrases 3c(a)): ▸ a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) iii. l. 1562 I finde his ansuere ay so badde, That werse mihte it nevere be. The use of bad as an adverb is deprecated by grammarians after the middle of the 18th cent.; compare:1770 R. Baker Refl. Eng. Lang. 66 Some Writers employ the Word bad as an Adverb, and would not scruple to say That was done very bad: which is not English.