What does battledore mean?
A battledore is a light paddle or small racquet, traditionally made of wood, used to strike a shuttlecock in the old game known as battledore and shuttlecock. In that pastime, two players batted a feathered cork back and forth, keeping it airborne as long as possible without a net — a simple diversion that was a direct ancestor of modern badminton. The word carries a second, historical sense: in earlier centuries a 'battledore' was also a hornbook or paddle-shaped primer bearing the alphabet and basic prayers, used to teach children their letters. Today the term is largely antiquarian, surviving chiefly in the fixed phrase 'battledore and shuttlecock' and in writing about the history of sport or childhood education. Its evocative, old-fashioned character makes it a favourite in historical fiction and accounts of Georgian and Victorian domestic life.
A light paddle or racquet used to hit a shuttlecock in the traditional game of battledore and shuttlecock.
"They spent the summer afternoon keeping the shuttlecock aloft with battered wooden battledores."
Almost always encountered today within the phrase 'battledore and shuttlecock'.
A hornbook or paddle-shaped primer used to teach children to read (historical).
"The schoolmaster handed each pupil a battledore inscribed with the alphabet."
This sense is obsolete except in historical scholarship about early childhood education.
Regular plural; used when referring to multiple paddles or multiple hornbook primers.
"The museum display case held several battledores alongside feathered shuttlecocks."
Before there was badminton, English children kept a feathered shuttlecock aloft for hours with nothing but a small wooden paddle called a battledore — and the same word also named the little hornbooks that taught them their ABCs.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of battledore
The word 'battledore' first appears in English in the late Middle Ages, and its ultimate origin is uncertain; one common view derives it from 'bat', the implement used for striking, though the exact path of formation is debated. It originally named the paddle used in the shuttlecock game, and by the seventeenth century it had been extended to the hornbook primers used in teaching reading, so called because of their similar paddle shape. The game itself spread through Europe and gave rise to badminton, which took its modern form in nineteenth-century India and England.
How battledore is actually used
The word is now largely historical or antiquarian, encountered mainly in discussions of the history of badminton or of early children's education. The compound phrase 'battledore and shuttlecock' is the most common way it survives in modern usage.
Easily confused with battledore
Badminton is the modern net game that evolved from battledore and shuttlecock, whereas a battledore is simply the paddle itself.