batiste

English

Etymology

From French batiste, a form of Baptiste, of disputed origin (“according to Littré and Scheler from the alleged original maker, Baptiste of Cambray; according to others, from its use in wiping the heads of children after baptism” – OED).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bəˈtiːst/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

batiste (countable and uncountable, plural batistes)

1. A fine cloth made from cotton or linen; cambric.
   • 1916, “Smocking”, in The Dressmaker: A Complete Book on All Matters Connected with Sewing and Dressmaking […], 2nd revised and enlarged edition, New York, N.Y., London: The Butterick Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 29:

     Smocking done in colors on fine white batiste, silk mull, or nainsook makes pretty guimpes and dresses for children and very smart blouses for women.

   • 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 104

     Clad in a Persian-Renaissance gown and a widow's tiara of white batiste, Mrs Thoroughfare, in all the ferment of a Marriage-Christening, left her chamber on vapoury autumn day and descending a few stairs, and climbing a few others, knocked a trifle brusquely at her son's wife's door.

   • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 88:

     He had started to stroke her, shivering, staring ahead, following with a blind man's hand the dip of her spine through the batiste.

Translations

fine cloth

• Afrikaans: batis
• Bulgarian: батиста (batista)
• Catalan: batista f
• Czech: batist m
• Danish: batist (da) c or n
• Dutch: batist (nl) n
• Esperanto: batisto (eo) f
• Estonian: batist
• Finnish: batisti
• German: Batist (de) m
• Greek: βατίστα (el) f (vatísta)
• Hungarian: batiszt (hu)
• Indonesian: batis (id)
• Italian: batista (it) f
• Japanese: バチスト (bachisuto)
• Kazakh: бәтес (bätes)
• Polish: batyst (pl) m
• Portuguese: batista (pt) f, cambraia (pt) f
• Romanian: batist (ro)
• Russian: бати́ст (ru) m (batíst)
• Spanish: batista (es) f
• Swedish: batist (sv) c
• Tagalog: batista

Anagrams

• baitest, batties, beats it, bistate

French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

batiste f (plural batistes)

1. cambric

Descendants

• → Russian: батист (batist)
  • → Georgian: ბატისტი (baṭisṭi)

Further reading

• “batiste”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Noun

batiste f

1. plural of batista

Anagrams

• bastite, sbattei, sbietta

Spanish

Verb

batiste

1. second-person singular preterite indicative of batir