Battel.

I recently ran across a reference to someone’s “battel” at Oxford, and of course went straight to the OED, where I found an entry (from 1885; not yet revised) so redolent of posh Victorian England I had to share it:

1. † A prebend. Obsolete.
[…]

2. In Univ. of Oxford: (a) college accounts for board and provisions supplied from the kitchen and buttery; (b) (in looser use) the whole college accounts for board and lodgings, rates, tuition, and contribution to various funds, as ‘My last term’s battels came to £40’; also attributive, as battel-bills.
The word has apparently undergone progressive extensions of application, owing partly to changes in the internal economy of the colleges. Some Oxford men of a previous generation state that it was understood by them to apply to the buttery accounts alone, or even to the provisions ordered from the buttery, as distinct from the ‘commons’ supplied from the kitchen: but this latter use is disavowed by others. See the quotations, and cf. those under battel v. and batteler n., which bear that battels applied in 17–18th centuries to provisions supplied to members of the college individually at their own order and cost, i.e. to battelers, who had no commons, but were charged their ‘battels’ only, and to commoners as extras ‘above the ordinary stint of their appointed commons’: but whether the battels were originally the provisions themselves, or the sums due on account of them, must at present be left undecided.

[1557
Ad solvendum debita seu batillos sociorum.
Reg. Exeter Coll. 41]
[…]
1706
For sometime kept a name in yᵉ Buttery Book; at wᶜʰ time Dr. Charlett was sponsor for discharge of his Battles.
T. Hearne, Remarks & Collections (1885) vol. I. 220
1792 The word battel, which..signifies to account, and battels the College accounts in general.
Gentleman’s Magazine August 716
1842 Their authority might be exerted to compel payment to tradesmen with nearly the same regularity as they exact their own battells.
T. Arnold in Life & Correspondence (1844) vol. II. x. 305
[…]
1882 Receipts..in respect of battels, room rent and tuition fees.
Spectator 18 March 352

3. Elsewhere: (see quots.).

1805 Battel—(a term used at Eton for the small portion of food which, in addition to the College allowance, the collegers receive from their Dames,).
J. H. Tooke, Επεα Πτεροεντα (ed. 2) vol. II. iv. 123
[…]
[a1883 Every boy had a shilling a week pocket-money, which we called battels [This is an error of the author: the Winchester term is battlings], and which was advanced to us out of the pocket of the second master.
A. Trollope, Autobiography (1883) vol. I. 13]

A brisk rap on the knuckles for poor Trollope! (But let’s face it, he attended Harrow as a day pupil who didn’t pay fees before haring off to Winchester; what can you expect?) And the etymology is equally chatty and supercilious:

Of uncertain origin: in 16th cent. Latin batilli, battilli; in the Laudian Statutes batellae. The etymology of this, with its associated verb, and derivative batteler, has been the subject of abundant conjecture. Much depends on the original sense at Oxford: if this was ‘food, provisions,’ it is natural to connect it with battle v.³ to feed, receive nourishment; compare especially battling n.³, explained by Sherwood (1632) as ‘vivres, manger, morche.’ But conclusive evidence that battels had this sense is wanting, while already before 1600 it had that of ‘debita,’ sums due to the college for provisions, etc. The verb however appears to have been sometimes used for ‘to take or receive provisions,’ i.e. from the college buttery, which brings us close to the senses of battle v.³ ‘to feed, take nourishment.’ Compare also the Eton use, and Winchester battlings. On the other hand, battel v. 2 (if the same word) suggests the idea of contributing to a common fund or stock: compare the terms ‘commons’ and ‘commoner.’ See batteler n.

Notes
Taking ‘accounts’ or ‘score’ as the original sense, some have conjectured battel to be a diminutive of bat n.² or of French batte, with sense of ‘little staff or stick,’ whence perhaps ‘tally-stick.’ But nothing appears in medieval Latin, Old French, or English, to support this conjecture. Reference to Dutch betaalen, German bezahlen ‘to pay,’ or to the possibility of batilli arising out of a misreading of bacilli ‘little sticks,’ do not fall within the limits of scientific etymology.

More knuckle-rapping, though here the miscreants are not named (they presumably paid fees).

Comments

  1. J.W. Brewer says

    If memory serves, my college buttery in New Haven in the Eighties ran on a strictly-cash-up-front-and-don’t-ask-for-credit basis, but that would make sense because it was entirely run by student volunteers who needed to pay their own suppliers promptly etc. It wouldn’t surprise me if by now you can acquire food/drink there by waving some sort of card or smart-phone app which is then somehow linked to your official-university bursar’s account (which may or may not permit you to run a deficit these days?).

  2. I knew the older “prebend” meaning; in fact, it is more familiar term in that sense than prebend itself—not that either one every comes up very often. (I also note that Trollope tends to get his usage of prebend “not quite right” either. He uses it to mean the position of a prebendary cleric, not the stipend associated with that position.)

  3. vittles/wittles/victuals?

  4. Wiki says “sometimes spelled batells (Magdalen), or batels (Brasenose)” which might have helped Inspector Morse solve a murder or two

  5. J.W. Brewer says

    I have long thought Brasenose the most entertainingly-named of the Oxford colleges but I did not know they have their own orthographic conventions. (Some online sources claim some formal sister-city-type relationship between Brasenose specifically and my old college @ Yale, although I never heard tell of that when I was an undergraduate. So either a more recently-formalized connection or some purely theoretical deal struck back in 1951 or whenever that everyone had forgotten by the Eighties and some archeologist subsequently learned about.)

  6. When I was an undergraduate at Oxford our college handed out books of pre-paid perforated “battels tickets”, rather like a book of stamps, in denominations mainly of pence and a few pounds (this was after decimalisation) for use within the college as currency for meals, drinks at the bar, etc. I imagine (I don’t know) that some sort of front-loaded credit card is used these days.

  7. explained by Sherwood (1632) as ‘vivres, manger, morche.’

    Morche! What an odd word. Sherwood’s entry is under battling, column a. Sherwood also uses morche as a translation for English cheere, column b.

    There doesn’t really seem to be an etymology for this word. Back-formation from esmorcher ? (This verb occurs in Villon.). There seems to have been a colloquial meaning something like ‘eat, break off pieces to eat, chew up’ for this verb, to judge from this passage from Noël du Fail, Contes et discours d’Eutrapel:

    Un jour que ce Braguibus estoit assis à table fort bien couverte de bons vivres, à laquelle personne ne se mettoit jusques à ce qu’il eust un peu mangé, et puis commandoit par mines et haussement de main à ceux qu’il vouloit estre à sa table, où, la révérence faite à la polaque, parlans bas les uns aux autres pour n’offenser ceste machine terrestre et espée de plomb en fourreau d’argent, survint en l’hostelerie un brave et vaillant soldat qui tenoit le chemin du camp, où il couroit sur le bruit d’une bataille prochaine, et, sachant que on mangeoit en haut et qu’il s’y galopoit des maschoueres, monta gaillardement, disant dés l’entrée de l’huys, en façon soldate et de galant homme : « Messieurs, si nous ne nous hastons, les chiens mangeront le lièvre : les deux armées se vont joindre »; prent un verre, duquel, le tenant en la bouche, se versa de l’eau et lava ses mains, puis bragardement se mit à manger et esmorcher en toutes façons, faisant une terrible brisée sur ce qu’il attachoit, et ainsi exploitant à coups de dents. Un qui faisoit le maistre d’hostel luy dit bassement qu’il eust à sortir et se retirer, et que telle façon de faire desplaisoit à monsieur. « Mon compagnon, dit le gendarm.e, si un autre y fait mieux son devoir, j’offre m’en aller et quitter la place; mais encore faut-il boire un coup, ou la partie ne seroit pas bien faite. » On luy baille une pleine grande tasse de vin pour s’en ‘depestrer, laquelle il jetta sur sa conscience et mit hors des caquets de ce monde fort doctement.

    Not much is known about Sherwood and where he acquired French. (Scroll down to 281 or seach on Sherwood if the link is wonky.)

  8. Sherwood seems to be simply reversing the entry in Randle Cotgrave (1611) here, column b:

    Morche: f. food, victuals, cheere, batling

    I wonder where Cotgrave picked it up.

  9. I see that the link to the Dictionnaire du Moyen Français I provided doesn’t work for some reason. If you would like to see the entry, go here, and type esmorcher into the box and search. Then click on the tab labelled ‘Complet’.

    The Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch includes morche among the unknowns here.

  10. David Marjanović says

    Any relation to morsel?

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