Forms: 5 bete, 6 beit, 7 bayt, 8 bait, 8– beat, 9 beet. [Of uncertain form and etymology; the 15th c. bete and 18th c. frequent bait, point to beat as the 16th c. and normal modern form, bait being only a phonetic variant at a time when the pronunciation was still (bēt) as in great, and beet being a modern phonetic spelling since the pronunc. became (bīt) as in meat, meet. Possibly from the vb. beat, in sense of a ‘beating,’ or quantity to be beaten at once; see BEAT v. 24, and cf. stack, etc.] A bundle of flax or hemp made up ready for steeping.
c. 1450. Henryson, Mor. Fab., 60. The Lint ryped, the Churle pulled the Lyne, Ripled the bolles, and in beites it set; It steeped in the burne, and dryed syne, And with ane beittel knocked it and bet, Syne swyngled it well, and hekled in the flet.
a. 1500. Cath. Angl., 30, note. A bete as of hempe or lyne, fascis.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Countr. Farm, 567. Hempe … bound vp in bundles, which they do call bayts.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Hemp, Laying Bait upon Baits till all be laid in, and so that the Water covers ’em all over.
1744. D. Flint, Raising Flax, ix. 11. The lint is … tied up in large but manageable Beats or Sheaves.
1839. Stonehouse, Axholme, 29. Flax … a week after midsummer, is pulled and bound in sheaves or beats.
1847. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., VIII. II. 453. The flax … must be tied up in small sheaves or beets.
