The story
From dialectal English (compare Old Scots bais, base (“to beat soundly”)), probably of North Germanic origin, related to Swedish bas (“a beating, flogging”), Swedish basa (“to beat, flog”), Danish bask (“a lash, blow”), Danish baske (“to beat, strike, flap”). Cognate with Scots baiss (“to beat, drub”). More at bash, box.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.