bâtă

Forms

bâtă f (plural bâte)^[1] The 1953–1993 spelling is bîtă.^[1][2] A masculine or neuter variant bât is recorded from 1648.^[3] Tiktin also gives Moldavian and Transylvanian botă and boată.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic бътъ (bŭtŭ, “sceptre”), as DELR, Ciorănescu, Scriban and Wiktionary give it, from Proto-Slavic *bъtъ.^[3][5][6][1] DELR compares Bulgarian бът (bǎt) and Serbo-Croatian bat (“mallet”).^[3] DEXI takes it from the Bulgarian word, while DEX calls it of unknown origin.^[7][8]

Tiktin thought the word related to băț “stick”, and DELR takes both from the same Slavic base.^[4][3] For the variant botă Tiktin, after Tamás, compares Hungarian bot.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the variant bât in the New Testament of 1648, in the old sense “sceptre”.^[3] The form bâtă follows around 1700 in a lexicon.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The modern sense is a long thick stick, often with a knob at one end, of the kind shepherds carry.^[8][6] Șincai writes of men who took two clubs each and beat the people of a town.^[9] By extension it also meant a blow with such a stick, a beating, and harsh rule.^[2][10]

A school slang use calls a pupil who knows nothing bâtă;^[7][11][4] Tiktin records the older phrase a pricepe cât bâta “to understand nothing at all”.^[7][11][4] BER thinks a dialectal Bulgarian бът, the iron axle of a mill wheel, probably comes from the Romanian word.^[12]

Timeline

• 1648 – bât “sceptre” in the New Testament.^[3]
• c. 1700 – bâtă in a lexicon.^[3][4]
• 1811 – a calendar warns that children should not be punished with the stick.^[9]
• 1825 – the diminutive bâtea in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[3]
• 1892 – the verb bâti “to beat with a club” in the Banat.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A club or cudgel: a long thick stick, usually with a knob at one end.^[8][1]
2. A blow with such a stick; a beating; by extension, harsh authority.^[2][10]
3. (colloquial) Used as a predicate: knowing nothing, hopelessly bad at a subject;^[7][11][1] a fi bâtă to know nothing at an exam.^[7][11][1]

Word family

• bâtea
• bâti
• bâtică
• bâtuță
• bâticuță

Related words

• băț
• botă

Usage notes

Set phrases include a da cu bâta-n baltă “to blunder” and the proverb ajunge o bâtă la un car de oale.^[7][2]

A separate regional word bâtă means “grandmother”, the feminine of bât “grandfather”, used in Muntenia, Dobrogea and southern Moldova.^[13][2] DELR calls it a word of children's speech, probably shortened from bătrâna “the old one”, after the DA.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 246
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. bâtă
4. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. bâtă
5. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. bîtă
6. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 176
7. ^ a b c d e f Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. bîtă
8. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 97
9. ^ a b Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. bâtă
10. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. bîtă
11. ^ a b c d Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. bâtă
12. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 105
13. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. bât