The Word Bail

Boat by megpickard

Consider the word "bail." It is a container used to empty the water from a boat, and it's the act of emptying water from a boat. "Bailing out" is the act of jumping out of a plane, which is odd since that is practically the opposite of what one does when their boat is in distress. I suppose the phrase came to use since bailing yourself out of a plane does make the plane more buoyant.

Bail by Lance McCord

Bail is a security exchanged for the release of a prisoner. People get bailed out of jail, which is unlike bailing out of a plane, since the former is something you need someone else to do for you and the latter is an intensely personal decision (under most circumstances, anyway). One would never bail himself out of jail only as a last resort. Still, so far, bail is removing something from something else.

But bail is also the arched, hooplike handle of a container, such as a pail. I'll use it in a sentence:

I bumped the pail's bail against the gunwale while bailing the sail boat.

Actually, a bail is any arch or hoop, it seems. Even the ribs of a covered wagon are bails. It's the hinged bar on a typewriter that holds the paper against the platen. That's okay. We're not likely to see too many covered wagons or typewriters in our future.

Let's not confuse it with bale, though, which is pronounced exactly the same way but means to bind, as a verb, and something that has been bound, as a noun. Think of a bale of hay. Bale, somehow, also means evil and mental suffering.

Alexi by Chuck and Vicki Rogers

Where I grew up, bail has slang meaning, too. It means to not follow through on a commitment, i.e. to "flake." "I bailed and went to Tommy's." Currently, it also has a specific skateboard slang meaning: to physically jump out of a stunt or move that is headed only toward injury. The first slang meaning indicated something done out of indifference or boredom. The second slang meaning, however, is much closer to that of the aircraft context.