Re: batch

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Torsten" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "dgkilday57" <dgkilday57@> wrote:
> >
> > [...]

Instead, I think a Class II weak denominative *bakko:n 'to make a batch' was formed from *bakko:n- 'batch', and this weak verb interacted with *bakan 'to bake' in different ways as the meanings fell together in the individual languages. In the Low Countries, *bakko:n (later *bakko:jan) prevailed over *bakan. The weak cross *bako:n is represented by ON <baka> and Upper German <bachen>. The strong cross *bakkan competed with the original *bakan in OHG and MHG, and has now prevailed in HG <backen>. In English, *bakan prevailed over *bakko:jan quite early, since the latter is unattested, but ironically the winning verb became weak, with the participle <baken> going obsolete early in the Modern phase. Nevertheless, if my analysis is correct, only English has preserved the noun which generated *bakko:n in the first place.

>
> This might be relevant
> http://www.systranet.com/dictionary/dutch-english/bak
> "receptacle, box, bin"

Another sense I found for Du. <bak> (pl. <bakken>) is 'sailor's mess, galley'.

> Da. bakke "tray"

I should retract that bit about only English preserving the noun.

> de Vries
> bakki 2 m 'kleines fahrzeug' (nur in þula)
> - vgl.
> and. bak, nnl. bak 'schüssel, kübel'
> (hieraus afrz. bac 'kübel; fähre',
> spät. lat. bacca 'wassergefäss';
> Falle, WS 4, 1912, 87)
>
> Seems also to point to batch being an ovenful.

On the other hand Varro says "vinum in Hispania bacca" and I have argued elsewhere for a Hispano-Latin derivative *baccarus 'wine-boy, butler, servant on an estate' formed with the atonal suffix *-aro- common in this area, whence *baccara:lia n. pl. 'servants' quarters, rustic shack, and in 9th-cent. Latin texts of Catalonia and S. France <baccalaria> 'peasants' hut' (for the liquid metathesis cf. Spanish <milagro>, <palabra>, etc.). Then by back-formation I get later medieval Latin <bac(c)alari(u)s> 'peasant, tenant farmer, boor, underclassman, bachelor'. This non-IE <bacca> 'wine, wine-bottle, vessel' is in my opinion more likely to underlie those 'vessel' words than Gmc. *bakko:n-.

DGK