Etymologically
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bald

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /bɔːld/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English balled (also ballede), of uncertain origin.[2][3][4] Most dictionaries take it as a formation with the adjective suffix -ed on a base meaning a white patch or blaze on an animal's head,[5][6][7][8] compare Welsh bal (“having a white mark on the forehead (of a horse)”), Irish ball (“spot, mark”) and Breton bal (“white mark on an animal's face”);[4][9][7] Barnhart thinks the base probably Celtic,[4] and Hoad suggests an Old English *bællede.[5] Through the idea of "white, shining" it has been linked with Ancient Greek φαλός (phalós, “white”), Latin fulica (“coot”) and Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shine”).[3][10][11] The OED and SOED also consider a derivation from ball, "rounded, smooth", since the first recorded sense is "rotund",[2][6] but Barnhart notes that examples of that development are lacking.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bal- appears in a surname before 1292,[4] and balled about 1300.[4][3] The OED's first example (1297, Robert of Gloucester) seems to mean rotund or corpulent;[2] lacking hair on the head is from about 1386, in Chaucer's General Prologue.[2]

Semantic evolution

Barnhart finds the sense "having a white spot or blaze", used of animals, before 1325, especially in balled coot, a bird with a white mark on its forehead,[4] and the bald eagle, named for its white head, is from the 1680s.[3] Transferred uses spread to anything lacking its natural covering: hairless parts of the body (before 1400), bare trees and hills and napless cloth (Shakespeare),[2] and worn tyres (by 1930).[3][2] Figuratively it meant meagre in the 14th century, without ornament in the 16th and open or undisguised in the 19th.[3] In northern and western English dialects bald or balled still meant white-faced or piebald, of animals.[12]

Timeline

  • before 1292 – Bal- in a surname.[4]
  • c. 1300 – balled, hairless.[4][3]
  • before 1325 – having a white blaze.[4]
  • c. 1386 – hairless on the head, in Chaucer.[2]
  • 1680s – bald eagle.[3]
  • 1838 – a bald, a treeless summit (US).[11]
  • by 1930 – of a worn tyre.[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Having little or no hair on the scalp.
  2. Lacking a natural covering, such as plants or leaves; of a tyre, having a worn tread.
  3. Plain and blunt, without elaboration: a bald statement.
  4. Of some birds and animals, having white markings on the head.

Verb

  1. To become bald.

Word family

  • baldly
  • baldness
  • baldish
  • bald-faced
  • baldhead
  • baldheaded
  • baldie
  • balding

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)