batir

Forms

batir (first-person singular present bato, first-person singular preterite batí, past participle batido)^[1] In the 13th century the etymological infinitive bater stood beside batir: the Libro de Alexandre and the Partidas use the first, Berceo already the second.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin battuere (“to beat, pound”), in its popular form battere.^[3][2][1][4] Old Spanish had both the etymological infinitive bater and the form batir, which Berceo already uses several times, once in rhyme.^[2]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese bater, Galician bater, Asturian bater, Catalan batre, Occitan batre, French battre, Italian battere and Romanian bate.^[5][6][2] Corominas notes that in Castilian and Portuguese it has been much less vigorous than in the other Romance languages, and that from the start it tended to be kept for special military and technical uses, above all “to coin money”.^[2]

The Latin verb is rare in literary texts, though it occurs as early as Plautus;^[7][8] Suetonius uses it of fencing.^[7][8] The OLD marks it as Gaulish, and Corominas, who considers it of Celtic origin, suggests it may have spread through the gladiators.^[7][2] Wiktionary considers the origin unknown, perhaps Gaulish or Germanic, and ultimately either Proto-Indo-European *bʰedʰh₂- (“to stab, dig”) or an imitative root *bʰat- (“to hit”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) uses it of spurring horses in a charge: batién los cavallos con los espolones “they struck the horses with their spurs”.^[9][10][11] Berceo has it for beating a person, as in the Loores de Nuestra Señora: d'açotes lo batieron “they beat him with whips”.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already has the verb for beating wings, for beating an egg to mix it into a remedy, and for hammering metal.^[12] In 1611 Covarrubias lists batir moneda “to coin money”, batir hueuos “to beat eggs” for an omelette, batir los muros “to batter the walls” with artillery, and batir el cobre, figuratively “to work hard and fast at something”.^[13]

The military sense “to rout the enemy” was still called newly introduced by Terreros, and Corominas regards the reflexive batirse “to fight” as a Gallicism of the late 18th century.^[14][2] The Academy added “to fight” in its 1869 edition.^[15] Today the verb also means to search an area thoroughly, in hunting or police work, and in sport to beat an opponent or a record.^[3]

In the Río de la Plata and Bolivia it means “to inform on someone” in popular speech, a use Alemany already recorded for Argentina in 1917.^[16][17]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has batién los cavallos con los espolones.^[9][10]
• 13th century – Berceo writes batir, the Libro de Alexandre and the Partidas bater.^[2]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of beaten egg and of a metal that cannot be beaten.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives batir hoja, the beating of gold leaf.^[18]
• 1545 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City: batir la moneda.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias lists coining, beating eggs, battering walls and batir el cobre.^[13]
• 1786 – Terreros calls the military sense “to rout the enemy” newly introduced.^[14]
• 1869 – the Academy's dictionary adds “to fight”, also reflexive.^[15]
• 1917 – Alemany records the Argentine sense “to denounce”.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. To beat, strike repeatedly.^[3][1]
2. To knock down a wall or building by blows.^[3]
3. (military) To bombard a place with artillery; to command a position with gunfire.^[3]
4. Of the sun, water or wind: to beat on a place without hindrance: El viento del norte bate la fachada.^[3]
5. To move something forcefully, such as wings or oars: El cóndor batía sus enormes alas.^[3]
6. (cooking) To whisk, beat a substance to thicken, mix or dissolve it.^[3][1]
7. To hammer metal into sheets.^[3]
8. To defeat an enemy.^[3]
9. To coin money.^[3]
10. To rinse washed clothes.^[3]
11. To search an area thoroughly, in military operations, hunting or the pursuit of suspects.^[3]
12. (sports) To beat an opponent; to break a record.^[3][1]
13. (reflexive) To fight, especially in a duel.^[20][2]
14. (Río de la Plata, Bolivia, colloquial) To inform on someone to the authorities.^[16]

Word family

• batidor
• batiente
• abatir
• combatir
• debatir
• embatirse
• rebatir
• batido
• batidora
• batida
• baticola

Related words

• batalla
• batería
• batuta
• Latin battuō
• Portuguese bater

Usage notes

In Aragon and Navarre batir also means “to throw or drop something”.^[21] In Venezuela and the Dominican Republic it is used for slamming a door.^[16][22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 544
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. batir
4. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 960
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
7. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. batir
10. ^ a b c Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 507
11. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. batir
12. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. batir
13. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 290
14. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 231
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 102
16. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. batir
17. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 234
18. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. batir
19. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. batir
20. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 86
21. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. batir
22. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. batir