abayer

An old form of "to bark," specifically used in hunting for a pack of hounds baying at their quarry (les chiens abayent après le cerf) — a variant spelling of abaïer, both ancestors of the modern aboyer. Survives mainly in older hunting vocabulary and historical texts.

• Les chiens abayaient autour du gibier acculé. — The hounds bayed around the cornered game.
• On entend encore abayer la meute au loin. — The pack can still be heard baying in the distance.
• Le vieux traité de chasse emploie le verbe abayer. — The old hunting treatise uses the verb abayer.

As with abaïer, there's no real modern trap here beyond mistaking it for a misspelling of aboyer when it turns up in an old hunting text — it's a genuine historical spelling, not an error.

Often confused with aboyer.