að, [Gr. φώγειν, cp. also the Lat. focus; A. S. bacan; Engl. to bake; Germ. backen.]

1. prop. to bake; b. brauð, N. G. L. i. 349; b. ok sjóða, to bake and cook, Gþl. 376. In Icel. steikja is to roast; baka, to bake; but in mod. usage steikja may also be used of baking on embers, opp. to baka, baking in a pan or oven; elda ofn til brauðs ok b., Hom. 113; b. í ofni, Fas. i. 244; people say in Icel. steikja köku (on embers), but baka brauð.

2. metaph. and esp. in the reflex. bakast, to bake, i. e. to warm and rub the body and limbs, at a large open fire in the evening after day-work; v. bakeldr and bakstreldr; v. also the classical passages, Grett. ch. 16, 80, Fms. xi. 63, 64 (Jómsv. ch. 21), Orkn. ch. 34, 89, 105, Hkr. iii. 458. In Icel. the same fire was made for cooking and warming the body, Ísl. ii. 394, Eb. ch. 54, 55; hence the phrase, hvárt skal nú búa til seyðis (is a fire to be made for cooking) … svá skal þat vera, ok skaltú eigi þurfa heitara at baka, it shall be hot enough for thee to bake, Nj. 199 (the rendering of Johnsonius is not quite exact); skaltú eigi beiðast at baka heitara en ek mun kynda, Eg. 239: used of bathing, bakaðist hann lengi í lauginni, Grett. ch. 80, MS. Cod. Upsal. This ‘baking’ the body in the late evening before going to bed was a great pastime for the old Scandinavians, and seems to have been used instead of bathing; yet in later times (12th and 13th centuries) in Icel. at least bathing (v. above) came into use instead of it. In the whole of Sturl. or Bs. no passage occurs analogous to Grett. l. c. or Jómsv. S.

β. bóndi bakar á báðar kinnr, blushed, Bs. ii. 42; þanneg sem til bakat er, as things stand, Orkn. 428; bakaði Helgi fótinn, H. baked the (broken) leg, Bs. i. 425; vide eldr.

γ. (mod.) to cause, inflict; b. e-m öfund, hatr, óvild (always in a bad sense): af-baka means to distort, pervert.

II. to put the back to, e. g. a boat, in floating it, (mod.)