Definition

a master; hence, a husband, or (figuratively) owner (often used with another noun in modifications of this latter sense)

Etymology

from H1166 (בָּעַל);

Where the KJV renders it

• archer
• babbler
• bird
• captain
• chief man
• confederate
• have to do
• dreamer
• those to whom it is due
• furious
• those that are given to it
• great
• hairy
• he that hath it
• have
• horseman
• husband
• lord
• man
• married
• master
• person
• sworn
• they of

Every distinct English word the King James Version uses to translate this Hebrew term. The variety shows what readers in English receive across many different surface words — the same underlying word, scattered across the English Bible under different names.

What the first audience heard

A deep-dive treatment of this word is in the works. The featured chapter above carries the long form of what this word meant to its first audience.