bat

English has three main words spelled bat: the club, the flying mammal, and the verb meaning to blink.^[1][2]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bæt/^[3]

bat¹ club, stick

Etymology

The club is Middle English batte, inherited from Old English batt (“cudgel”), a rare late Old English word,^[1][2][4] probably of Celtic origin:^[5][4] compare Irish and Scottish Gaelic bata (“staff, cudgel”), and Gaulish andabata, a gladiator who fought blindfolded.^[4][5][1] Barnhart prefers a borrowing of Late Latin battere, Latin battuere (“to beat”).^[1] It was later reinforced by Old French batte (“pestle”), from battre “to beat”.^[4][2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stick, club or cudgel: 1205 in the OED,^[7] probably before 1200 in Layamon's Brut in Barnhart.^[1] Etymonline notes that it was at first a western English word.^[4]

Semantic evolution

A Middle English sense of a lump or chunk, of bread, clay or wool, survives in brickbat and batting.^[4] The wooden implement used to strike the ball in cricket is attested from 1706,^[7][4] and the sense passed to baseball and table tennis.^[8][9] The verb, to strike with a bat or cudgel, is from the 13th century in MWU, late Middle English in the SOED.^[5][6] Right off the bat, at once, is from 1866, probably a baseball metaphor, though cricket may be the source.^[4] To go to bat for someone and to bat around an idea are American uses.^[8]

Timeline

• 1205 – a club, cudgel.^[7]
• mid-14th century – a lump, chunk.^[4]
• 1706 – a cricket bat.^[7][4]
• 1866 – right off the bat.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A shaped wooden club used to hit the ball in cricket, baseball and similar games.
2. A stout stick; a cudgel.
3. (informal) A blow or rap.

Verb

1. To hit with a bat or as if with a bat.
2. To take a turn at batting in cricket or baseball.
3. (informal) To discuss at length: bat ideas around.

Word family

• batter
• batsman
• batting
• brickbat

bat² flying mammal

Etymology

The animal is inherited from Middle English bakke, altered in dialect in the 16th century,^[4][1][2] a word of Scandinavian origin: compare Old Swedish nattbakka (“night bat”) and Old Danish nathbakkæ.^[1][2][5] Etymonline relates these to Old Norse leðrblaka (“bat”), literally “leather flapper”, from Proto-Germanic *blak-, from PIE Proto-Indo-European *bʰlag- (“to strike”).^[4] The change from -k- to -t- may have come through confusion with Medieval Latin blatta (“moth, nocturnal insect”).^{[4][1][6][10]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Bakke is from before 1325 in Barnhart and the early 14th century in Etymonline;^[1][4] the form bat is from about 1575 in Barnhart and the 1570s in Etymonline,^[1][4] and MWU's first known use is 1580.^[5] The OED dates the animal from before 1300, counting the earlier forms.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The Old English name for the animal was hrēremūs, from hrēran “to shake”, and the dialect rattle-mouse and flitter-mouse are from the 16th century.^[4] Blind as a bat is from the 16th century; before then the usual comparison was with a beetle.^[10] The OED has bat-blind from 1609.^[7] Bats in the belfry, crazy, is from about 1901,^[7][10] and like a bat out of hell, very fast, from 1921.^[7] As a contemptuous term for an old woman, old bat, Etymonline suggests witchcraft, or the slang bat, a prostitute who works at night.^[4]

Timeline

• before 1325 – bakke.^[1]
• 1570s – the form bat.^[4][1]
• 1609 – bat-blind.^[7]
• c. 1901 – bats in the belfry.^[7]
• 1921 – like a bat out of hell.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A flying, chiefly nocturnal mammal of the order Chiroptera, with wings of skin stretched between long fingers.
2. (informal) An unpleasant or foolish old woman: an old bat.

Word family

• batty
• fruit bat
• vampire bat

bat³ to blink

Etymology

The verb is a variant of bate², to flutter or beat the wings, as a hawk does.^[4][2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To flutter the wings, as a hawk: the 1610s in Etymonline,^[4] 1615 in Barnhart,^[1] and the early 17th century in the SOED.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The sense of moving the eyelids, blinking or winking, is from 1838 in Barnhart and 1847 in Etymonline, in American English.^[1][4] Not to bat an eyelid meant first not to sleep a wink, then to show no emotion.^[6]

Timeline

• 1610s – to flutter the wings.^[4]
• 1838 – to wink, blink.^[1]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To blink or flutter the eyelids: she didn't bat an eye.

Related words

• battle
• batman
• bate
• flitter-mouse

Usage notes

There are also several minor words: bat, a packsaddle, from Old French bat (modern bât), which survives in batman;^[6][5] bat, a spree or binge, slang of unknown origin (mid-19th century);^[6] and sling the bat, to speak the local language abroad, from Hindi bāt “speech”.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press