I came across this in what I think is the KLC Graded Reader, but other than the basic answer of it’s a type of test, I can’t seem to find much about it. Can anyone shed some light beyond the simple definition? Anyone know why or if ばつ is related to anything else? Is this the only thing it relates to?
Was it about a type of a test, that is まるばつクイズ in the text?
It could also refer to まるばつゲーム.
ばつ is an × sign, or a wrong answer, or also a punishment (罰).
まる is a 〇 sign, or a right answer.
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As I stated, other than it referring to a type of test,
The whole entry was これは〇×のテストです。The furigana was まるばつ。 The translation was: “This is a true-false test.” There was the following note: In this context, the × mark represents a “cross-out” mark (the opposite of the circlemark).
But searches did not give me anymore insight than I originally stated. No origin, no definitive adjacents. There are things that also read ばつ(like 罰), but not a definite correlation.
Not a direct answer to your question, but if you are interested in additional history of a Japanese word or phrase, it’s best to just search for the answer in Japanese.
Here’s the wikipedia page: × - Wikipedia
I’m not sure what that means, but I did find the page informative. At least if the page translation is accurate. I am far from being able to make sense of a lot of that. Thanks for the link.