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Origin and history of *bhau-

*bhau-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to strike."

It might form all or part of: abut; baste (v.3) "beat with a stick, thrash;" battledore; beat; beetle (n.2) "heavy wooden mallet;" botony; boutonniere; butt (n.1) "thick end;" butt (v.) "strike with the head;" buttocks; button; buttress; confute; halibut; rebut; refute; sackbut; turbot.

It might also be the source of: Latin *futare "to beat" (in compounds); Old English beadu "battle," beatan "to beat," bytl "hammer, mallet."

Entries linking to *bhau-

abut(v.)

mid-13c., "to end at, to border on, touch at the end," from Old French aboter, abuter "join end to end, touch with an end" (13c.), and abouter "join end to end," from à "to" (see ad-) + boter, bouter "to strike, push," from a Germanic source (ultimately from PIE root *bhau- "to strike"). Compare butt (v.). Related: Abutted; abutting.

baste(v.3)

"beat with a stick, thrash," 1530s, perhaps from the cookery sense of baste (v.2) or from Old Norse beysta "to beat" or a similar Scandinavian source (such as Swedish basa "to beat, flog," bösta "to thump"), from Proto-Germanic *baut-sti-, from PIE root *bhau- "to strike."

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beat
Old English beatan "inflict blows on, strike repeatedly, thrash" (class VII strong verb; past tense beot, past participle beaten), from Proto-Germanic *bautan (source also of Old Norse bauta, Old High German bozan "to beat"), from PIE root *bhau- "to strike." Past tense form beat
beetle
insect of the order Coleoptera, Middle English bitil, from Old English bitela "beetle," apparently originally meaning "little biter, biting insect," from bitel "biting," from Proto-Germanic *bitan, from PIE root *bheid- "to split," with derivatives in Germanic referring to biting
botony
also bottony, "decoration with buds, knobs, or buttons at the extremities," 1570s, in heraldry, from Old French botoné (Modern French boutonné) "covered with buds," past participle of boutonner "to bud," from bouton "bud, button," 12c., from bouter "to strike, push," from Frankis
abandon
late 14c., "to give up (something) absolutely, relinquish control, give over utterly;" also reflexively, "surrender (oneself), yield (oneself) utterly" (to religion, fornication, etc.), from Old French abandonner "surrender, release; give freely, permit," also reflexive, "devote
abhor
c. 1400, "to loathe, regard with repugnance, dislike intensely," literally "to shrink back with horror or dread," from Latin abhorrere "shrink back from, have an aversion for, shudder at," from ab "off, away from" (see ab-) + horrere "tremble at, shudder," literally "to bristle,
metaphysics
"the science of the inward and essential nature of things," 1560s, plural of Middle English metaphisik, methaphesik (late 14c.), "branch of speculation which deals with the first causes of things," from Medieval Latin metaphysica, neuter plural of Medieval Greek (ta) metaphysika,
surreptitious
"fraudulent, done by stealth or without legitimate authority," mid-15c., surrepticious, from Latin surrepticius "stolen, furtive, clandestine," from surreptus, past participle of surripere, "seize secretly, take away, steal, plagiarize," from assimilated form of sub "from under"
bravo
"well done!," 1761, from Italian bravo, literally "brave" (see brave (adj.)). Earlier in English it was a noun meaning "desperado, hired killer" (1590s). The superlative form is bravissimo. It is held by some philologists that as "Bravo!" is an exclamation its form should not ch
pharmacy
late 14c., farmacie, "a medicine that rids the body of an excess of humors (except blood);" also "treatment with medicine; theory of treatment with medicine," from Old French farmacie "a purgative" (13c.) and directly from Medieval Latin pharmacia, from Greek pharmakeia "a healin
dichotomy
c. 1600, "a cutting in two, division into two classes;" 1630s, "state of having a dual arrangement or order," from Latinized form of Greek dikhotomia "a cutting in half," from dikho-, combining form of dikha "in two, asunder" (from or related to dis "twice," from PIE root *dwo- "

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