† embatern.

Etymology: < classical Latin embater (Vitruvius), interpreted by 17th-century scholars as denoting the hole in a ballista, a siege engine resembling a giant crossbow, but generally regarded by modern scholars as a synonym for modulus (see modulus n.) < Byzantine Greek ἐμβατήρ , a term of architecture (Hesychius) < ancient Greek ἐμ- en- prefix² + βατήρ threshold, base of a statue, after ἐμβαίνειν to step in.The reading of the relevant passage in Vitruvius (1. 2. 4) is uncertain; elsewhere (4. 3. 3) Vitruvius uses embates ( < Hellenistic Greek ἐμβατης, only in Vitruvius in this sense, already in ancient Greek denoting a kind of boot) as a synonym for modulus, and it has been suggested that embater and embates could be considered as equivalent.