battement

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French battement (“beating, hitting”).

Noun

battement (plural battements)

1. (ballet) A ballet move involving a beating action with an extended leg
   • 1894, Arthur Machen, Memoirs of Casanova‎^[1]:

     […] he raised slowly his rounded arms, stretched them gracefully backward and forward, moved his feet with precision and lightness, took a few small steps, made some battements and pirouettes, and disappeared like a butterfly.

   • 1988 March 11, Dorothy Samachson, “Chicago Repertory Dance Ensemble”, in Chicago Reader‎^[2]:

     Ernst and Watson are superb dancers--extraordinarily agile and acrobatic, and their unison spins, battements, and body lines showed a split-second timing.

2. (obsolete) A thumping or beating sensation
   • 1796, Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia, Vol. I‎^[3]:

     Secondly, though there is an audible vertigo, as is known by the battement, or undulations of sound in the ears, which many vertiginous people experience […] .

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French

Etymology

battre +‎ -ment.

Noun

battement m (plural battements)

1. beating; hitting

   battement du cœur

   beating of the heart

Further reading

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

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Norman

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

battement m (plural battements)

1. (Jersey, medicine) heartbeat