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English
Etymology
Borrowed from French battement (“beating, hitting”).
Noun
battement (plural battements)
- (ballet) A ballet move involving a beating action with an extended leg
1894, Arthur Machen, Memoirs of Casanova:[…] 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:Ernst and Watson are superb dancers--extraordinarily agile and acrobatic, and their unison spins, battements, and body lines showed a split-second timing.
- (obsolete) A thumping or beating sensation
1796, Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia, Vol. I: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 […] .
French
Etymology
From battre (“to beat”) + -ment.
Pronunciation
Noun
battement m (plural battements)
- beating; hitting
battement du cœur- beating of the heart
- (ballet) battement
Derived terms
Further reading
Norman
Etymology
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Noun
battement m (plural battements)
- (Jersey, medicine) heartbeat