The Alonso de Molina’s dictionaries (1555-1571) include American loanwords in Spanish and words of the old Spanish language. We have studied the denominations, the meanings and the characteristics of batea. With historical-linguistic, lexicographical and documentary resources it is proposed that batea can be the earliest American word. It could have been born of a Castilian archaism (batear), which had an unforeseeable diffusion in Spanish America, thanks to the catholic religion and the need to christen the idolaters.
