Jörg Knappen wrote on Sat, Dec 3, 2011 06:28 PM UTC:
Now I found the time to look up patzen/Patzer in an etymological
dictionary. It is a german word;
deriving from the common german wird 'Batzen' (lump, chunk, glob; also a
historic small coin minted in Switzerland) and showing Bavarian or Austrian
spelling (B->P). Batzen is derived from 'Backen' (to bake).