bakehouse

From Middle English bakhows, bakhous, bachous, from Old English bæchūs (“bakery, bakehouse”), from Proto-West Germanic *bakahūs (“bakehouse”), equivalent to bake +‎ house. Cognate with Scots bake-hous (“bakehouse, bakery”), Saterland Frisian Bakhuus (“bakehouse”), West Frisian bakkhûs (“bakehouse”), Dutch bakhuis (“bakehouse”), German Low German Backhuus (“bakehouse”), German Backhaus (“bakehouse, bakery”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈbeɪkhaʊs/

bakehouse (plural bakehouses)

1. A building or an apartment used for the preparing and baking of bread and other baked goods.
   • 1548, Hugh Latimer, A Notable Sermon of the Reverende Father Maister Hughe Latemer‎, London:

     And they haue deuised for that purpose to make vs beleue in other vayne thynges by his pardonnes, as to haue remission of sinnes for praiynge on hallowed beades, for drinkyng of the bakehouse bole, as a Channon of Waltam Abbey, once tolde me, that when soeuer they putte theyr loaues of breade into the ouen, as manye as drancke of the pardon bolle shoulde haue pardon for drinckynge of it.

   • 1793, Charles Dibdin, chapter 5, in The Younger Brother‎, volume 3, London:

     This third scheme went to the relief of the poor at large, and indeed so did the fourth. One was a plan to sell them bread under the standard price, and the other meat. To carry the first into execution, a water-mill was built, and a bakehouse annexed to it.

   • 1895, Thomas Hardy, chapter 2, in Jude the Obscure‎:

     Jude, finding the general attention again centering on himself, went out to the bakehouse, where he ate the cake provided for his breakfast.

   • 2004, Andrea Levy, Small Island, London: Review, Prologue, p. 3,

     Graham helped Father in the shed. He looked after the fire under the copper of pig swill, took the pork pies to the bakehouse when needed and generally ran round doing everything Father asked

2. A building principally containing ovens.
3. (UK dialectal) Bakery.

• bakery

• → Welsh: becws, bacws, becos