# "bade:" past tense for "bid" in the auction sense?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bade-past-tense-for-bid-in-the-auction-sense/754440>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 9, 2016, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bade-past-tense-for-bid-in-the-auction-sense/754440 "2016-05-09T21:22:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bade-past-tense-for-bid-in-the-auction-sense/754440/21 "2016-05-10T17:18:11Z")

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Incidentally, the tense change from “bid” to “bade” is an example of Indo-European [abluat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_ablaut). And it seems old-fashioned because it is, in fact, from one of the oldest strata of the language.

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**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bade-past-tense-for-bid-in-the-auction-sense/754440/22 "2016-05-11T01:41:10Z")

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> [@psychonaut](#):
>
> According to whom? I just consulted a half-dozen dictionaries, all of which give both pronunciations, but with no usage notes. (Dictionaries usually mark highly stigmatized pronunciations.) Also, the _OED_ gives a number of variant spellings of “bade”, many of which suggest the word was “traditionally” (at least, in the Middle Ages) pronounced as “bayed”.

The OED gives the usage note about Scotland that I mentioned.

It also gives pronunciations for both BrE and AmE which suggest that the “bayed” pronunciation is no longer current. That’s not to say that there are no varieties of English in which it may be current, but in the ones noticed by the OED, or to which I have been exposes myself, it’s not current. And where it does occur I suspect it’s more likely to be a spelling pronunciation than a holdover.

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