balloon

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bəˈluːn/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian ballone, northern Italian dialect for a large ball (standard Italian pallone), perhaps partly through French ballon,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} an augmentative of balla (“ball”), of Germanic origin,^[2][3][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *ball- (see ball),^[3][7] from Proto-Indo-European *bhel- (“to blow, swell”).^[3] The ending is -oon.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A game played with a large leather ball kept in the air: 1579, in a version of Plutarch's Lives, in Barnhart; 1580 in the OED, the 1570s in Etymonline.^[2][8][3] The ball itself is from 1592.^[8][3]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th and 17th centuries a balloon could also be a ball-shaped ornament on a pillar (1656) or a firework (1634).^[8][7] The sense of a large gas-filled bag lifting a basket and passengers came after the Montgolfier brothers' flights of 1782–3, especially the one before the French court at Versailles in September 1783.^[2][7][8] The toy balloon is from about 1800 or 1848.^[7][8] Figuratively, anything inflated and empty is from 1812.^[8] The verb, to go up in a balloon, is from 1792, and to swell out from 1841.^[3] When the balloon goes up, when the action starts, is from 1924.^[8]

Timeline

• 1579 – balloon, a ball game.^[2]
• 1592 – the ball itself.^[8]
• 1634 – a firework.^[8]
• 1783 – a lighter-than-air balloon.^[2][8]
• 1792 – to balloon (verb).^[3]
• 1924 – when the balloon goes up.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An inflatable rubber bag used as a toy or decoration.
2. A large bag filled with hot air or a lighter-than-air gas, which rises and can carry a basket or gondola.

Verb

1. To ride in a balloon.
2. To swell out like a balloon.
3. To increase rapidly.

Adjective

1. Shaped like a balloon.

Word family

• balloonist
• balloonlike
• balloonfish
• ballooning
• kytoon
• rockoon
• barrage balloon
• balloon barrage

Related words

• ball
• ballot
• -oon

Usage notes

In obsolete Scots a balloon was the large leather ball of the game.^[9]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ 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)