ballerina

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian ballerina,^[2][3][4][5] recorded in Italian before 1492,^[2] the feminine of ballerino (“dancer, dancing master”),^[2][3][6][7] from ballare (“to dance”),^[5][4][8] from Late Latin ballō (“to dance”),^[5][4] from Ancient Greek βαλλίζω (ballízō, “to dance, jump about”),^[5][3][9] which Klein derives from βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”).^[9] Etymonline glosses the Greek verb literally as "to throw one's body" and traces it to Proto-Indo-European *gwele- (“to throw, reach”).^[3] Dictionary.com analyses ballerino as formed from a noun for dancing and the suffix -ino.^[10] French ballerine and Spanish bailarina are parallels.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A female ballet dancer: 1789, in A. Young's journal of his travels in France, published 1792.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline date the word to 1792, Barnhart noting that Byron first used it as an English word in 1815,^[4][3] the date Merriam-Webster gives.^[8] The OED also notes an isolated earlier borrowing, ballarine, a woman dancer, in L. Nowell's Vocabularium Saxonicum of before 1567.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In English the Italian plural ballerine was sometimes used.^[3][6] It often means a dancer who takes a leading role in classical ballet,^[2][6] and in American usage the principal female dancer of a company.^[7] From 1947 it was also short for ballerina shoe, a flat slipper, a use found in French and Italian only later.^[2][8]

Timeline

• before 1567 – ballarine, a woman dancer (an isolated borrowing).^[2]
• 1789 – a female ballet dancer, especially one who takes leading roles.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline give 1792.^[4][3]
• 1947 – a flat slipper, short for ballerina shoe.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A female ballet dancer, especially one who dances leading roles in classical ballet.^[7][8][2]
2. (US) The principal female dancer of a ballet company; a prima ballerina.^[7][8]
3. A light, flexible flat slipper for women.^[8][2]

Related words

• ballet
• ballad
• ballistic
• bayadere

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House