From mews and jesses to mantling and bating, working with raptors comes with a whole new vocabulary. Most of these words are traditional falconry terms that have been used for thousands of years. Beyond that, I rarely discover the words' original origins. So it's kind of neat when I come across an explanation for a word that I've been using for years.
Sometimes a bird gets frightened on glove and tries to fly away. This escape behavior is called a "bate." That term originally came from the old French word "batre," which means "to beat." In this context, it refers to the bird beating their wings.
A text from 1615 described this verb:
"Batting, or to batte is when a Hawk fluttereth with her wings either from the pearch or the mans fist, stryving as it were to flie away, or get liberty."
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