Bait is the causative form of "bite" — Old Norse for "that which makes something bite" — connecting fishing lures to Elizabethan bear pits.
Food or other lure used to attract prey or fish. Also a verb meaning to entice, or historically, to torment an animal by setting dogs upon it.
From Old Norse beita (to cause to bite, to hunt with dogs) and beit (food, pasture), from Proto-Germanic *baitō, causative form of *bītaną (to bite) Key roots: *baitō (Proto-Germanic: "food, pasture"), *bʰeyd- (Proto-Indo-European: "to split, bite").