bato

Forms

batō (present infinitive batāre, perfect active batāvī, supine batātum); first conjugation^[1] Wiktionary gives the variants badō and battō.^[1] Du Cange has the infinitive badāre from the glossary of Isidore.^[2]

Etymology

Its origin is unknown;^[1][3] Wiktionary and Etymonline suggest it may be imitative.^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is documented in a glossary of the late 8th century, which renders batat “yawns” with Old English ġinaþ.^[1] The glossary of Isidore explains badāre as ōscitāre, “to yawn”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Besides yawning it meant gaping open.^[1] It lived on in Romance: Italian badare, Catalan and Occitan badar and Old French beer are its descendants.^[1] Etymonline traces English bay “opening in a wall”, from the late 14th century, to Old French baee (“opening, hole”), a noun made from the participle of the French verb for “to gape”, which comes from it.^[3]

Timeline

• late 8th century – A glossary translates batat “yawns” into Old English.^[1]
• late 14th century – English bay “opening in a wall” is borrowed from Old French, ultimately from it.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (Early Medieval Latin) To yawn.^[1][2]
2. (Early Medieval Latin) To gape open.^[1]

Word family

• bataculō

Usage notes

Medieval Latin also has batāre “to beat, strike”, after French battre, in a charter of 1270;^[2] the TLL treats bato as a form of battuō.^[4] In British sources batāre means to reclaim land by burning the turf, recorded from 1339 in Cornwall.^[5] Batō, genitive Batōnis, is an Illyrian name, borne especially by the leader of the revolt of AD 6.^[6][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press