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Does anyone know whether "batter" as in "batter up!" on a baseball field is a noun or a verb derived from a noun?

To test for its verbhood, you'd have to apply some verb-related tests. Can it have a tense ending attached to it, for example? But if "Batter up" is generally used as a command, then that test is not available.

If it is a noun, then can you provide other examples of the pattern Noun + up that are used as commands?

I've found some examples, such as

"it's time to batter up and play ball."
--from Google Books

"It’s time to batter up and make that homerun!"
--from a Realty One Group webpage

"...like Babe Ruth from a New York Yankees baseball match, we batter up and knock those curveballs right out of the park."
--from Google Books again

If this sort of sentence works, that'd be evidence for its verbhood.

I'd appreciate your help.

Hellion
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Apollyon
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  • There are also tests for adjective-hood, preposition-hood, and even negative polarity, but before applying any such tests one would have to have sufficient motivation to believe the word might be an adjective or a preposition or a negative polarity item. Similarly for verb. I see zero reason to even suggest the batter in "batter up" who is a baseball player, a person, is a verb. Can you share your thought processes on why you think it may be a verb? – Dan Bron Jun 29 '17 at 10:40
  • For those of us not versed in baseball terminology, could you clarify the use? If you are calling a batter to bat, as in batter, up!, it would be a noun but if you are telling your team to batter up it would be a verb. – terdon Jun 29 '17 at 10:40
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    @terdon It is used to call a batter to bat. If you like trains, it's equivalent to all aboooooard. – Dan Bron Jun 29 '17 at 10:43
  • @Apollyon No one says "it's time to batter up and play ball". I think you're thinking it's the same as clean up, but it's not, it's more similar to man down. Even the morphology is strong evidence it's a noun: -er is an actor, an agent, a doer. – Dan Bron Jun 29 '17 at 10:45
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    If you think the term is ambiguous, more context will help. – Lawrence Jun 29 '17 at 10:46
  • @DanBron if it's equivalent to all aboard, I would say it is being used as a verb. Just as I would say that it's a verb in batter up your fish. In other words, it will depend if batter is being used to refer to a specific batter or if batter up is referring to the team and is telling the team to send a batter to bat. Compare to suit up, for example. Basically, I could see it going both ways, I'd need a full example sentence to be sure. – terdon Jun 29 '17 at 10:52
  • @terdon No, in all aboard, the word all is a noun. It is a command to tell all [passengers] to come aboard, if they don't want to be left behind. There is no more context to batter up, any more than there is additional context to all aboard. It's a standalone, stereotypical command to elicit a specific action. The ump shouts batter up to either command the next batter to come the the plate for his turn, or to tell the other players a batter has come up, and play is about to resume. In all cases, the batter is an individual human being, a person. Think man overboard. – Dan Bron Jun 29 '17 at 10:55
  • In all aboard it is, yes, absolutely. But if the batter up phrase is being used similarly, it would be a verb. My point is the difference between the team being told to batter up (as in suit up) as opposed to the team being told to (send/set a) batter up. In other words, it could be a verb (to batter up) meaning "to send someone to bat, to prepare the team to bat* or a noun, batter, referring to a person who is being called up. – terdon Jun 29 '17 at 10:59
  • The command is to the batter. The ump doesn't address the team: he addresses individual players. His job is to police the game. To address "the team", he'd call the coach, representing the team as unit. In case you're not familiar with game, the next player to bat is always a known individual, said to be "on deck", standing behind the batter, towards the backstop, nearest his team's dugout, often taking practice swings. This individual is being addressed; the team needs no reminder (in case you're picturing a bunch players absently-mindedly sitting around the dugout, not knowing who's next). – Dan Bron Jun 29 '17 at 13:01
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    Perhaps this could be clarified by translating the phrase to the game of cricket, in which it would be "Batsman up!". Batsman/batter is simply a noun referring to the player at bat. The whole thing is basically a set phrase that's short for "The next batter is up!". – Nuclear Hoagie Jun 29 '17 at 13:28
  • @Kit I don't think the question is unclear. I think it's based on a false premise, but it's a legitimate question. Or am I wrong? – Dan Bron Jun 29 '17 at 14:14
  • @Dan I incorporated some of OP's comments and left a placeholder for the research he indicated needs doing. Until he can explain more clearly why there's a question of noun v. verb, and explain more what the phrase means, then I feel the question is unclear. – Kit Z. Fox Jun 29 '17 at 14:26
  • @DanBron For the you deletion account to work, you'd have to treat "Batter" as something like a vocative, which in turns might require a pause between "Batter" and "up." But is there such a pause when you say "Batter up!"? You might want to try other noun phrases in place of "Batter." When you say "John, up!", is there a pause in between? – Apollyon Jun 29 '17 at 15:11
  • What? That's nonsense. Deletions don't require pauses. Deletions happen long before the words are voiced. No, there is no pause in "John, up!". Now it's really starting to feel like you're trying to make excuses to allow batter to be a verb. It isn't. Did this start as an argument between you and someone else on whether "batter" is a noun or verb in "batter up"? Are you defending that position or actually trying to learn the answer from a grammatical perspective? – Dan Bron Jun 29 '17 at 15:18
  • @DanBron I was only trying to test a hypothesis. I am not a native speaker; that's why I said "which MIGHT require a pause." I just wanted to find out. – Apollyon Jun 29 '17 at 15:20
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    Oh! You're not a native speaker. And presumably not a baseball fan. That's why you don't have the mental image that makes it clear that it's a noun. The words mean a specific thing to native speakers and baseball fans, and that meaning is what I've described above; the mental symbol being manipulated is indeed the batter, a person. It's a noun. – Dan Bron Jun 29 '17 at 15:24
  • @Apollyon You were supposed to google the phrases Kit Z gave and put your findings there, not edit it to ask the reader to google for you... – Hank Jun 29 '17 at 16:00
  • I'm struck by the similarity to the MWV 'lawyer up', but 'furnish oneself / one's team with batters' doesn't seem to be the meaning. It may just mean 'step up to the plate', when I'd say it's an idiom and trying to work out internal POS's is not helpful. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 05 '18 at 10:06
  • @DanBron 'it's time to batter up and play ball' obviously shows that someone has used the expression as a MWV. The umpire obviously is using a different construction. A decent answer requires usage data. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 05 '18 at 10:10
  • This shows the futility of reasoning from specious analogy. Man up! is a multi-word verb {CED} (here used in an imperative sentence) whereas Man down! is an idiom {Farlex Dictionary of Idioms} in the form of an (exclamatory) sentence fragment. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 07 '18 at 08:44

2 Answers2

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First, "batter" is a noun derived from a verb (bat, which in turn is a verb derived from the noun bat).

Second, the examples given don't seem to have been addressed previously. They all could be read as referring to a completely unrelated form of "batter", the dough you fry food in. By context, that's clearly not what's meant though. They are using "batter up" as a verbal phrase. But they do not make "batter" itself a verb.

"Batter" as a verb usually has a another completely different meaning (hit repeatedly). Again, by context not what is meant.

Steve Smith
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'Bat' started as a verb (Old French 'battre', to strike) {cf. 'beat', 'butt'}. It then auto-derived to a noun, to name the stick used for striking. This takes the suffix '-er' to make the noun 'batter', one who strikes. There is another noun 'batter', stuff that is stirred, that could conceivably be used as a verb {cf. "He buttered the bread."}, but that is the wrong context for baseball. "Batter up!" is an imperative, like "Heads up!", calling the next batter to the plate. The elided verb is 'be' {cf. "He is up"}.

AmI
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