--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:
>
> At 4:20:37 PM on Sunday, November 9, 2008, Rick McCallister
> wrote:
>
> > Would this be the same word as Spanish bata "robe,
> > nightgown" via Arabic? Is it originally from Persian?
>
> No idea.
>
> Brian
>
Joan Coromines in his Spanish etymological dictionary says that 'bata'
is first attested in Spanish in 1717, where is derived from 'buata'
and related to 'guata', French 'ouate', It. 'ovatta', German 'watte'
and English 'wad', all meaning 'cotton for lining clothes'. He adds
that the word is first attested in English ('wad', 1540) where it is
of uncertain origin, plausibly from Arabic 'wad.d.a¿', 'to put',
seemingly short for 'wad.d.a¿ bat.a:na', 'to put linings' in the sense
of 'replenish'(as done for gloves) or else for 'wad.d.a¿ tauban', to
line a cloth. He does not mention a specific (Egyptian?) origin but he
does suspect the English word originates in Medieval international
trading and that French 'ouate' may have been the intermediary between
the Mediterranean Lingua Franca and English --or Germanic, possibly
Hanseatic-- traders.
Ton Sales