batch

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bætʃ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bache (“process of baking, a baking”),^[2][3][4] probably from an unrecorded Old English *bæcce (“something baked”) (compare gebæc),^[5][2][4] from bacan (“to bake”) (see bake).^[2][5][4][3] The spelling batch developed in the 16th century to reflect the pronunciation.^[2] Batch is to bake as watch is to wake and match is to make.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The process of baking: 1440, a sense now obsolete.^[6] A baking, the bread made at one baking, is from 1461–83 in the OED, probably before 1475 in Barnhart.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

The quantity of corn sent to the mill at one time is a dialect sense of 1549.^[6] The general sense, a set of similar things, is from the 1590s,^[5] and a quantity produced at one operation, as a brewing, from 1713.^[5][6] A number of people or things dealt with together is from 1833.^[6] In computing a batch is a set of jobs processed in one run.^[7]

Timeline

• 1440 – the process of baking.^[6]
• 1461–83 – a baking of bread.^[6]
• 1590s – a set, a lot.^[5]
• 1713 – a quantity made at one operation.^[5][6]
• 1833 – a group dealt with together.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A group or set of similar people or things, especially arriving or dealt with together.
2. The amount of bread or cakes produced at one baking.
3. The quantity produced or needed for one operation.
4. (computing) A set of data or jobs processed in a single run.
5. A tall loaf baked as part of a batch.

Verb

1. To gather or process as a batch.

Word family

• batcher
• batch processing

Related words

• bake
• baker

Usage notes

In Herefordshire dialect batch was also the palm of the hand.^[8]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)