batting

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈbætɪŋ/^[1]

Etymology

It is from English bat + -ing, from the verb bat,^[2][3][4] or from the noun bat, a club.^[2] The sense "cotton in sheets" is from the beating of raw cotton to clean it,^[5][6] and Barnhart also derives it from batt (1830), a felted mass of fibre.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Beating, in washing or smoothing linen, in compounds such as batting-staff: 1611, in Cotgrave's French–English dictionary.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The sporting sense, the action of using a bat in cricket, is from 1773,^[2][6] and baseball's batting average from 1867.^[6] The beating of raw cotton to remove impurities is recorded from 1813,^[2] and cotton fibre prepared in sheets for quilts from 1875–76.^[7][2] In dialect, batting was a beating and the snaring of birds at night with nets.^[8]

Timeline

• 1611 – beating linen (obsolete by 1798).^[2]
• 1773 – using a bat in cricket.^[2][6]
• 1813 – beating raw cotton.^[2]
• 1867 – batting average.^[6]
• 1875 – cotton in sheets for quilts.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The act or skill of hitting with a bat, in baseball or cricket.
2. Cotton, wool or synthetic fibre in sheets or rolls, used for stuffing mattresses and lining quilts.

Word family

• batting average
• batting cage
• batting order

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
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)