Etymograph

English

bat

Bat comes from Middle English bakke.

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bakke
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1920bat

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bakke
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1920bat

Earliest quotation: 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood: “The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat…”

The story

Perhaps compare Old Norse (leðr)blaka (literally “(leather) flapper”), from leðr + blaka (‘to flap’).

Every English word from Middle English bakke

Another origin of bat

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500batuncertain
  2. Englishtodaysame form

From Middle English bat, batte, from Old English batt (‘bat, club, cudgel’), probably of Celtic origin, compare Old Breton bath (‘club, cudgel’) and modern Breton bazh (‘swagger stick’), ultimately from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *bʰedʰh₂- (‘to strike, beat, pierce’), similar to the Gaulish source of Latin battuō (‘to beat, pound’).

Another origin of bat

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰedʰh₂-‘to stab, dig’uncertain
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEbattuoas battuere‘to beat’
  3. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEbattere
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400batre‘to beat’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500batten‘to beat’
  6. Englishtodaybat

In modern English reinterpreted as a verbal derivative of Etymology 2.

Today it means

noun Any flying mammal of the order Chiroptera, usually small and nocturnal, insectivorous or frugivorous.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Middle English bakke / bat

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