bate

Forms

a bate (third-person singular present bate, past participle bătut, third-person subjunctive bată); 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin battuō (“to beat, strike”), in its later form battō.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The verb is pan-Romance, and survives in all four branches: Aromanian bat, Megleno-Romanian bat and Istro-Romanian båte.^[2][6][7][8] Its Romance cognates include Sardinian báttere, Italian battere, French battre, Catalan batre, Spanish batir and Portuguese bater.^[6][9]

The DA notes that the Latin verb had a narrower range of meaning than the Romanian one.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, written around 1500, with the past tense bătu.^[2][6] MDA2's first record is the Codicele Voronețean.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Starting from “to strike repeatedly”, the verb took on a very wide range of uses: to beat someone, to defeat an enemy or rival, to knock at a door, to hammer metal or nails, to mint coins, to thresh, to churn butter, to weave by beating the weft, and to play a drum.^[5][11][3] Intransitively the heart beats, the wind blows, the sun shines on something, and a gun has a certain range.^[2][1] In Bukovina and northern Moldavia it can also mean “to bark”, which REW explains by German anschlagen (“to strike; to bark”).^[9]

Many idioms come from it: a bate palma “to shake hands on a deal”, a-și bate joc “to mock”, from which batjocură and batjocori were formed, and a bate drumurile “to roam”.^[11][2][4] Prefixed verbs such as străbate and răzbate are recorded too, străbate already around 1500.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – bătu in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2][6]
• c. 1500 – batjocură “mockery” and the verb străbate “to pass through”, in the same psalter.^[2]
• 1560–1561 – bătător “beater” in Coresi's Gospel book.^[2]
• c. 1563–1583 – bate in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3]
• 1566 – bătaie “beating” in Coresi.^[2]
• 1567–1568 – bătătură in Coresi.^[2]
• 1570 – Lacul Batiștilor, a place name with the derivative batiște “trodden yard”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To beat, to strike repeatedly and hard, with the hand, a stick or a whip; to tap someone lightly on the shoulder or back.^[11][3][1]
2. To defeat an opponent in a game or contest, or an enemy in war; reflexively, to fight.^[11][1]
3. To knock at a door; to hammer metal or drive in nails; to mint coins.^[5][3][1]
4. To thresh grain; to churn; to weave by beating in the weft.^[5][3]
5. (intransitive) Of the heart, to beat, to throb.^[5][1]
6. Of the wind, to blow; of the sun, to shine on something.^[5][1]
7. Of shoes, to rub and hurt the feet.^[1][2]

Word family

• bătător
• bătători
• bătăuș
• bătut
• batjocură
• batjocori
• străbate
• răzbate

Related words

• abate
• bătaie
• bătălie
• combate
• zbate
• bătătură
• Latin battuō

Usage notes

Bătut în cap means “dim-witted”, and a bate pe cineva la cap “to nag someone”.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. bate
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 169
4. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. bate
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. bate
6. ^ a b c d Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
7. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 60
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 996
10. ^ 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. bate
11. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 91