batten

batten¹ to thrive, grow fat

Etymology

The word for growing fat and thriving is probably borrowed from Old Norse batna (“to improve, get better, recover”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from bati (“advantage, improvement”).^[2][8] The OED finds it from the end of the 16th century and allows that it may have been in dialectal use before then,^[2] and Etymonline takes it as an unrecorded Middle English dialectal survival of the Norse verb.^[3] Wiktionary reconstructs the verb's ancestor as Proto-Germanic *batnaną (“to become better, improve”).^[1] It is cognate with Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌱𐌰𐍄𐌽𐌰𐌽 (gabatnan, “to be bettered, to profit”),^[2][8][9] Old English batian (“to get better”),^[3][9][5] Old Frisian batia,^[3][9] Old High German bazēn^[9] and Dutch baten (“to avail”),^[2][9] and is related to better.^[9][6][4] The American Heritage Dictionary refers the root to Proto-Indo-European *bhad-,^[7] which Wiktionary writes *bʰed- (“good”).^[1] Johnson (1755) called it "a word of doubtful etymology".^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To grow fat: Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this sense to 1540.^[4] The other dictionaries begin later: Etymonline has the 1590s for "to improve; to fatten",^[3] Dictionary.com 1585–95,^[8] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English the late 16th century.^[5][11] The OED's first quotation, for feeding gluttonously, is from Shakespeare's Hamlet (1604).^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first idea was improvement in condition, especially of animals that put on flesh by feeding.^[2][6] Feeding gluttonously is recorded from 1604, and in 1607, in Jonson's Volpone, the verb is already figurative: to prosper, usually at someone else's expense.^[2] Cotgrave (1611) used well batned for well grown or well prospered.^[12] A transitive use, to fatten up, runs from Milton's Lycidas (1638) to 1791,^[2] and to fertilize soil is recorded once, from Speed in 1612.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave "to fatten, or make fat" and "to fertilize" for the transitive verb, and "to grow fat; to live in indulgence" for the intransitive one.^[10] Of soil and plants, to grow fertile or rank is recorded from 1855.^[2] In northern English and Scots dialect the verb still meant to feed, grow fat or thrive in the 19th century, and in Northumberland and Cumberland "a good battening to the bairn" was a toast at the feast after a birth; in Northamptonshire it could mean to wallow.^[13]

Timeline

• 1540 – to grow fat, thrive.^[4] The OED's first quotation for improving in condition is from 1631, in Jonson's Bartholomew Fair.^[2]
• 1604 – to feed gluttonously; to revel in something.^[2]
• 1607 – figurative, to prosper at another's expense.^[2]
• 1612 – to fertilize soil (obsolete, rare).^[2]
• 1638 – transitive, to fatten up (obsolete by 1791).^[2]
• 1855 – of soil or a plant, to grow fertile or rank.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To grow fat, or to thrive by feeding: The calves battened on the spring grass.^[4][2]
2. To feed gluttonously; to glut oneself or revel in something, usually with on or upon.^[4][2][5]
3. To prosper, especially at the expense of another, usually with on: Moneylenders battened on the town's debts.^[4][2][5]
4. (obsolete, 1638–1791) To fatten up; to feed for profit.^[2][5][10]

batten² a strip of wood

Etymology

The word for the strip of wood is, in several modern dictionaries, an altered form of the Middle English noun bataunt (“a finished board or bar”), also batent,^[7][8][14] and so borrowed from Old French batant (“a wooden strip, clapper”),^{[7][8][5][6][11]} the noun use of the present participle of batre (“to beat”),^{[7][5][6][11]} from Latin battuō.^[11] The OED (in an entry not revised since 1885), Etymonline, Barnhart, Weekley and Klein instead take it as a variant of baton,^{[2][3][15][12][9]} as do Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Collins, from French bâton (“stick”).^[4][16] The OED explains the spelling by saying that the technical use kept the earlier pronunciation of baton.^[2] The bar of a loom is separately from battant, the French term for that bar,^{[2][4][5][13]} which the American Heritage Dictionary traces to the same Old French noun.^[7] The verb is formed from the noun.^{[2][3][15][5]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A finished board or bar, as used in panelling: batauntes in a London account of 1427–8, and batents in an account of 1474–5.^[14] Dictionary.com dates the Middle English word to 1400–50, and the Shorter Oxford puts the noun in the late 15th century.^[8][5] Those who derive it from baton begin with 1658, the OED's first quotation, or the 1650s.^{[2][4][15][3]}

Semantic evolution

The word stayed in the language of builders and carpenters: Johnson (1755), quoting Moxon, called it "a word used only by workmen" and described a scantling of wood two to four inches broad.^[10] From a piece of squared timber it came to mean a strip nailed across parallel boards to hold them together (1663),^[2] and then, at sea, a strip protecting masts and spars or holding down the edges of a tarpaulin over a hatch (1769).^[2][3] The verb, to furnish with battens, is dated 1663 by Merriam-Webster Unabridged, 1675 by the OED and 1775 by Etymonline and Barnhart.^{[4][2][3][15]} The nautical batten down followed in the 1820s: Etymonline has 1821, the OED and Barnhart 1823.^[3][2][15] Batten down the hatches now also means to prepare for a crisis.^[17] From 1881 a batten could carry gas or electric lamps, especially over a stage.^[2] English dialects used it for a narrow plank in the north, for a fence rail in Norfolk, and as a verb for partitioning off in Devon.^[13]

Timeline

• 1427–8 – bataunt, a finished board or bar.^[14]
• 1658 – a piece of squared timber used for flooring and to support laths.^[2][4][15]
• 1663 – a strip nailed across parallel boards.^[2] The verb, to furnish with battens, has the same date in Merriam-Webster Unabridged.^[4]
• 1749 – the movable bar of a loom.^[4] The OED's first quotation is from 1831.^[2]
• 1769 – nautical, a strip on masts and spars or holding down a tarpaulin.^[2][3]
• 1821 – batten down, to secure a ship's hatches with battens.^[3] The OED's first quotation is from 1823.^[2][15]
• 1881 – a strip carrying lamps, especially in a theatre.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sawn strip of wood used in building, as to cover joints or to carry tiles, slates or lath.^[16][2]
2. A long narrow board used for flooring.^[16][4][2]
3. A strip nailed across parallel boards to hold them together or to cover a crack: The barn door was held together by three battens.^[4][2]
4. (nautical) A strip of wood holding a tarpaulin along a hatch, or protecting masts and spars from chafing.^[16][2]
5. (nautical) A thin length of wood or plastic slipped into a pocket of a sail to keep its shape.^[16]
6. (theatre) A row of lights, or the bar that holds them.^[16][2][17]
7. The movable bar of a loom that drives the weft home.^[4][2][5]

Verb

1. To furnish or strengthen with battens.^[4][2]
2. batten down: to fasten down with battens, or as if with them, especially on a ship: The crew battened down the cargo hold before the squall.^[4][2][5]
3. batten down the hatches: to prepare for a crisis.^[17]

Word family

• battener
• battening
• batten down