As a noun, a mixture of liquid and flour used in cooking, or a baseball player at bat. As a verb, to strike repeatedly or damage through repeated blows.
From Old French battre meaning 'to beat', from Latin battuere 'to beat, strike'. The cooking sense developed from the beating motion used to mix ingredients, while the baseball meaning emerged in the 19th century.
Batter beautifully demonstrates how one root concept - beating or striking - can branch into completely different domains of human experience, from kitchen creativity to sports competition. The connection between mixing cake batter and baseball batting reveals our tendency to use physical metaphors across contexts.
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