batch (n.)

late 15c., probably from a survival of an unrecorded Old English *bæcce "something baked" (compare Old English gebæc) from bacan "bake" (see bake (v.)). Generalized sense of "an aggregation of similar articles" is from 1590s. Batch is to bake as watch (n.) is to wake and match (n.2) "one of a pair" is to make. Extended 1713 to "any quantity produced at one operation."