Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/bakati

Most likely from *ba- (“to speak, to enchant”) +‎ *-kati. Akin to Lithuanian bóskoti (“to tell”).

*bakati impf

1. to rattle, to mumble
2. (secondary) to reprove, to protest

• East Slavic:
  • Belarusian: ба́каць (bákacʹ)
  • Russian: ба́кать (bákatʹ) (dialectal)
  • Ukrainian: ба́кати (bákaty)
• West Slavic:
  • Czech: bakati, bákat (dialectal)
  • Old Polish: bakać
    • Polish: bakać

• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1974), “*bakati”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 1 (*a – *besědьlivъ), Moscow: Nauka, page 141
• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “ба́кать”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress

Uncertain. Probably of expressive origin.

Outside of Slavic, formally resembles Ancient Greek βαστάζω (bastázō, “to carry, to handle”) and Latin *bastō (“to carry”), battuō (“to pound”), however, common origin is unlikely.

*bakati impf (perfective *baknǫti) (regional)

1. to inflict, to exert (force, impact, damage)
2. to exact, to affect
3. (figurative) to kiss

• *batati, (possibly) *batьcati
• *batъ (“club”)

• East Slavic:
  • >? Ukrainian: ба́цати (bácaty), ба́цькати (bácʹkaty, “to push”) (if not from *batьcati)
• South Slavic:
  • Bulgarian: ба́кам (bákam) (obsolete, formal)
    • ⇒ Bulgarian: ба́цам (bácam), ба́чкам (báčkam)
  • Macedonian: *бака (*baka) (outdated)
    • ⇒ Macedonian: баца (baca, “to soil, to pollute”), бацува (bacuva, “to kiss”)
  • Serbo-Croatian:
    • Cyrillic script: ба̀кати, ба̀цати
    • Latin script: bàkati, bàcati

• Snoj, Marko (2016) “kobacati”, in Slovenski etimološki slovar [Slovenian Etymology Dictionary] (in Slovene), 3rd edition, https://fran.si: “iz *ba̋tati ‛tolči’”