biais

from the old Occitan biais (oblique direction, detour), perhaps from the Latin biaxius ('having two axes') or from the Latin bifax according to Littré who explains: 'Diez derives it from bifax, which is found in Isidore with this meaning: duos habens obtutus, that is to say 'having a double gaze, squinting', like the Spanish, 'which has two eyes, squinting'. From there to the sense of oblique, the transition is easy. The suppression of the f does not pose an obstacle: for there are examples of this in Provençal refusar and reusar, French refuser and reüser, and again in Provençal preon of profundus. Bifax is not isolated in late Latin; we also find befax, bifacius, bifacies. This word is an adjective; and biais is also one.