BATTEL

battel, or battels (of uncertain origin, possibly connected with "battle," a northern english word meaning to feed, or "batten"), a word used at oxford university for the food ordered by members of the college as distinct from the usual "commons"; and hence college accounts for board and provisions supplied from kitchen and buttery, and, generally, the whole of a man's college accounts. "batteler," now a resident in a college, was originally a rank of students between commoners and servitors who, as the name implies, were not supplied with "commons," but only such provisions as they ordered for themselves.