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I'm looking for the origin of the verb "Blatting" / "Blat", I have only ever heard this word used in the context of complete removal of data from either a database or web form. e.g.

"Lets completely blat the table row and see if our query still runs"

or

"Blatting the login form causes an exception"

I original thought it was slang specific to the team I am working for however since then I have heard it used by other software engineers both in and outside of the company.

Is this word widely used? Where does it come from? and maybe more importantly what does it actually mean?

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  • The book "UNIX for Dummies" uses the words "blat" and "blatting" for copying files from another machine books.google.com/… There is also an email related program called "blat" that many books discuss books.google.com/…
    – DavePhD
    Commented Apr 6, 2017 at 20:41
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    It should be noted that "blat" is the long-standing onomatopoeia for the sound of a trumpet.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Oct 3, 2017 at 3:04

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Eric Raymond, The New Hacker's Dictionary, third edition (1996) has this entry for blat:

blat n. 1. Syn. blast, sense 1 ["v.,n. Synonym for BLT {'to copy a large array of bits from one part of a computer's memory to another part, particularly when the memory is being used to determine what is shown on a display screen'}, used esp. for large data sends over a network or comm line. Opposite of snarf. Usage: Uncommon. The variant 'blat' has been reported"]. 2. See thud ["Yet another metasyntactic variable (see foo). It is reported that at CMU {Carnegie Mellon University} from the mid-1970s the canonical series of these was 'foo', 'bar', 'thud', 'blat'."].

Whether these meanings have any connection to the particular usage that the poster asks about is dubious. I imagine that any onomatopoeic sounds that suggest either farting or belching are likely to have emerged independently multiple times in the argot of computing. Still, it isn't a very large step from copying/pasting or transferring a large array of bits to deleting them. I've done it myself.

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    I have only heard BLT pronounced "blit". Blatting specifically refers to the overwriting of data.
    – thepeer
    Commented Aug 6, 2018 at 8:41
  • This is the best I could find. Still not very satisfactory, but if you follow the chain of synonyms you get blat = blast = nuke: hackersdictionary.com/html/entry/blat.html
    – Jimbali
    Commented Jun 19, 2020 at 14:13
  • BLT or BIT_BLT were block copy instructions on various processors such as the Intel 82786 graphics processor, and while they are originally from "bit block transfer", later abbreviated "blit", it wouldn't be too surprising for it to be read as "blat" at least once. The OP seems to be referring to overwriting blocks of data, so it fits. But onomatopoeia is certainly possible.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Mar 12 at 15:06
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'Blatting' is also used by British emergency services personnel, with the meaning of driving at high speed with the sirens on - it's a short form of 'blues and twos', referring to the flashing blue lights and two-tone siren.

Source: my mate who's a fireman.

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    Commented Mar 12 at 14:52
  • Blat: 3. (US) to drive fast. 1943 [US] R.L. Bellem ‘Half-Size Homicide’ in Speed Detective Nov. 🌐 I blatted into another right turn on Santa Monica Boulevard
    – Gio
    Commented Mar 12 at 19:20
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I found this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLAT_(bioinformatics) In that instance, BLAT means Blast-like Assignment Tool. I think this is related to what you're asking, but I don't really understand the rest of the article so I'm not totally sure.

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