bat

{{11}}bat (n.¹) "a stick, a club," O.E. *batt "cudgel," perhaps from Celtic (Cf. Ir. and Gael. bat, bata "staff, cudgel"), influenced by O.Fr. batte, from L.L. battre "beat;" all from PIE root *bhat- "to strike." Also "a lump, piece" (mid-14c.), as in brickbat. As a kind of paddle used to play cricket, it is attested from 1706. As a verb, "to hit with a bat," mid-15c. Related: Batted; batting.

{{12}}bat (n.²) flying mammal (order Chiroptera), 1570s, a dialectal alteration of M.E. bakke (early 14c.), which is probably related to O.Swed. natbakka, O.Dan. nathbakkæ "night bat," and O.N. leðrblaka "leather flapper," so original sense is likely "flapper." The shift from -k- to -t- may have come through confusion of bakke with L. blatta "moth, nocturnal insect." O.E. word for the animal was hreremus, from hreran "to shake." As a contemptuous term for an old woman, perhaps a suggestion of witchcraft (Cf. FLY-BY-NIGHT (Cf. fly-by-night)), or from bat as "prostitute who plies her trade by night" [Farmer, who calls it "old slang" and finds French equivalent "night swallow" (hirondelle de nuit) "more poetic"].

{{12}}bat (v.) "to move the eyelids," 1847, Amer.Eng., from earlier sense of "flutter as a hawk" (1610s), a variant of BATE (Cf. bate) (2) on the notion of fluttering wings. Related: Batted; batting.