gannet's bath

• gannets' bath

Calque of Old English ganotes bæð, from ganotes (“gannet (possessive singular)”) + bæð (“bath”).

the gannet's bath

1. (kenning, literary) The ocean; the open sea.

   Synonyms: swan's road, whale-road, whale's way

   • 1866 September 8, Once A Week, London, page 265, column 1:

     The loss would be greater than the gain to the web-footed race that come over the “gannets’ bath,” though a very desirable causeway to the “Belles Poules,” the Gallic birds, who might wish to come in too great numbers.

   • 1894, Albany F. Major, Sagas and Songs of the Norsemen, London: David Nutt, page 33:

     But steers his longship on that fated path,
     As dauntless as when first he took the helm
     And, standing out across the gannets’ bath,
     Subdued the viking's realm.

   • 1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 60:

     [A]cross the gannet’s bath,
     over the broad sea, whorled prows will bring
     presents and tokens.