batter

batter¹ to beat; a beaten mixture

Etymology

To beat is inherited from Middle English bateren,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French batre (“to beat, strike”), modern battre,^[2][4][5][3] also through baterer,^[6][7] from Latin battuō (“to beat, strike”).^[4][2][3] Barnhart explains that verbs borrowed from French normally lost the -r of the infinitive in Middle English, but here the ending was taken for the frequentative suffix -er, as in many Middle English verbs.^[2][8] Merriam-Webster and Collins instead see a frequentative of batten (“to bat”),^[9][10] and the OED derives it from a stem meaning "beat", shared by the French verb and by bat, with the frequentative suffix, compare stutter and patter.^[11] The Latin verb, rare in literature but common in Vulgar Latin, is said to be of Gaulish origin;^[4][3][12] Etymonline compares Welsh bathu (“to beat”) and Irish bata (“staff, cudgel”), and Klein derives it from a base Proto-Indo-European *bʰat- (“to beat, strike”).^[4][3] The noun for a beaten mixture is inherited from Middle English bature, also batour and bater,^[13][2] probably borrowed from Old French bateure (“a beating”), from batre,^{[13][4][5][3]} though the OED, Hoad and Merriam-Webster take it rather as a use of the verb.^[11][6][9] The Anglo-Norman bature already meant batter and paste, besides a beating, from the early 13th century.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To beat repeatedly: about 1330, in Sir Degare, according to Barnhart;^[2] the OED's first record is from 1377, in Langland's Piers Plowman.^[11] The noun, a mixture beaten up for cooking, is first recorded in 1381, in a recipe for fritters: mak therto a batour.^[13][2]

Semantic evolution

From beating with blows the verb was applied in the 16th century to breaking down walls with artillery or a battering ram (1570) and to attacking people or opinions with persistent criticism (1579).^[11] From 1697 it also meant to bruise or knock out of shape by rough use, and in printing to deface type.^[11] The phrase battering ram is attested from the 1610s.^[4][2] The word began to be used widely of domestic violence in 1962, when battered child appeared;^[4][2] Collins now records the social-welfare sense of subjecting a partner or relative to repeated violence.^[10] The cookery noun was used in Scots for a paste of flour and water used as glue (1624), and by extension for any thick paste or mud (1601).^[11][14] Johnson (1755) explained the noun as a mixture "so called from its being so much beaten".^[15] The verb to coat food in batter is recent, from 1971.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – to beat repeatedly (Sir Degare).^[2]
• 1377 – to strike with repeated blows (Piers Plowman).^[11]
• 1381 – noun, a mixture beaten together for cooking.^[13][2]
• 1570 – to batter walls with artillery.^[11]
• 1579 – to attack persons or opinions persistently.^[11]
• 1610s – battering ram.^[4]
• 1697 – to bruise or deface by blows or rough use.^[11]
• 1962 – battered child.^[2][4]
• 1971 – verb, to coat with batter.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hit repeatedly with heavy blows: Waves battered the harbour wall.^[10][9][16]
2. To damage or wear by blows or hard use: a battered old suitcase.^[10][16]
3. To subject a partner, child or relative to repeated physical violence.^[10][16]
4. To attack with harsh criticism.^[10][16][11]
5. To bombard walls or fortifications, as with artillery or a battering ram.^[11]
6. To coat food in batter before frying.^[9]

Noun

1. A thin mixture of flour, eggs and milk or water, used in cooking, as for pancakes or to coat food for frying.^[9][10][11]
2. (printing) A bruise or defect on the face of type.^[11]

Word family

• batterer
• battering ram
• battercake
• battered child syndrome
• battered woman syndrome
• batter bread

batter² one who bats

Etymology tree of batter²

inherited borrowed derived

English bat

English batter

From the same root · batter²

English batting ← bat

Etymology

One who bats is formed from English bat + -er,^{[11][2][9][5]} the agent noun of the verb bat, to strike with a bat.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who handles the bat, especially in cricket: 1773, in John Duncombe's Surrey Triumphant.^[11][2][4]

Semantic evolution

The earlier word for the cricket player was batsman, from 1744 in the OED and 1756 in Etymonline.^[11][4] In American use batsman was also applied to the baseball player, from 1856.^[11] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster define it for baseball, cricket and similar games.^[2][9]

Timeline

• 1744 – batsman, in cricket.^[11]
• 1773 – batter, one who bats.^[11][2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A player whose turn it is to bat, especially in baseball; a batsman in cricket: The batter swung at the first pitch.^[9][10][11]

Word family

• batter's box

batter³ slope of a wall

Etymology

The verb meaning to slope is of unknown origin.^{[11][5][9][10][16]} The OED thinks it hardly connected with batter, to beat, and asks whether it might be related to French abattre (“to beat down, throw down”),^[11] while Klein suggests it may come from the verb to beat.^[3] The noun, a receding slope, comes from the verb.^[11][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To give a wall an inward slope in building it: before 1398, in John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus.^[11] Merriam-Webster dates the intransitive verb to the 14th century,^[9] and Collins and the Shorter Oxford to the 16th.^[10][5]

Semantic evolution

The intransitive verb, of a wall that inclines back from the vertical, is recorded from 1546.^[11] The noun, the slope of a wall, terrace or bank, follows in 1743,^[11][9] and a batter was also a plumb-line frame for setting a wall at the proper slope (1847).^[11] In the dialects of Scotland and much of England the word was used of walls, embankments and ditches built out of the perpendicular, as in "the wall batters one foot in six" in Yorkshire.^[14]

Timeline

• before 1398 – to give a wall an inward slope.^[11]
• 1546 – of walls, to incline from the perpendicular.^[11]
• 1743 – noun, the receding slope of a wall or bank.^[11][9]
• 1847 – an instrument for setting the slope of a wall.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A receding upward slope of the outer face of a wall, bank or other structure.^[9][11][5]

Verb

1. Of a wall, to slope backwards as it rises.^[9][11][5]
2. To build a wall or bank with such a slope.^[9][11]