 The word batik is Javanese in origin . It may either come from the Javanese word amba ( ' to write ' ) and titik ( ' dot ' ) , or may derive from a hypothetical Proto @-@ Austronesian root * beCík ( ' to tattoo ' ) . The word is first recorded in English in the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1880 , in which it is spelled battik . It is attested in the Indonesian Archipelago during the Dutch colonial period in various forms : mbatek , mbatik , batek and batik . 
