Batter

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /ˈbætə/

Definitions

1. A mixture of flour, eggs, and liquid used in cooking, or a player who swings at pitches in baseball
2. A thick mixture typically made from flour and liquid used for cooking, or the player who attempts to hit the ball during a baseball game
3. A blend of flour, eggs, and milk that is cooked into dishes, or the athlete who faces the pitcher in baseball to hit the ball

Etymology: The kitchen sense of "batter" grows from a verb meaning "to beat," and the mixture is named for the vigorous stirring it needs. Middle English "batteren" was a frequentative of "batten" or "baten," meaning "to beat," so the form itself implies repeated, hard blows. Cooks were literally beating eggs, flour and milk together, and the name of the action came to name the result. A second line of descent ran through Old French. "Bature," from "batre" ("to beat"), reached Middle English as "bature," meaning the action of beating, and it reinforced the same family of meanings. The two strands merged in English, so the noun and verb now share a single sense of a repeatedly struck, mixed substance. The verb "batter" in its more violent sense, to strike again and again, is the older meaning, and the cooking sense is a specialised extension of it. The noun for a mixture of flour and liquid therefore carries a hint of hammering in its ancestry.

Synonyms: whip, beat, mix, blend, stir

Antonyms: settle, calm, smooth, combine, integrate