ballot

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈbælət/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian ballotta (“small ball used in voting”),^[2][3][4] a diminutive of Italian balla (“ball”),^[2][4][3] a word of Germanic origin.^[2][5] The Italian word is probably Venetian,^[6] and the earliest references are to voting in Venice.^[5] The root is Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to blow, swell”).^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small ball used to cast a secret vote.^[5][7][4][3]

Semantic evolution

Voters dropped such balls into an urn or box, so the word came to mean the method of secret voting itself.^[5][7] By 1776 it had been extended to the tickets or slips of paper used in secret voting,^[5] and it later came to mean a round of voting, the list of candidates, the votes cast and the right to vote.^[2][4][6]

Timeline

• 1540s – first recorded;^[5] Merriam-Webster, Barnhart and the OED give 1549.^[4][3][7]
• 1549 – verb, to vote on a proposal or candidate with ballot balls.^[7]
• 1580 – verb, to cast a secret vote.^[4][7]
• 1670s – ballot box.^[5]
• 1776 – the papers used in secret voting.^[5]
• 1785 – verb, to select by drawing lots.^[7]
• 1834 – ballot box for the system of voting by ballot.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A sheet of paper or card on which a vote is cast, especially in secret.
2. The act or system of voting, especially in secret; a round of voting.
3. A list of the candidates to be voted on.
4. The total number of votes cast.
5. The right to vote.
6. A small ball formerly used in secret voting.
7. The drawing of lots.

Verb

1. To vote or decide by ballot.
2. To draw lots.

Word family

• balloter
• preballot
• reballot
• absentee ballot
• Australian ballot
• ballot box
• Massachusetts ballot
• secret ballot

References

1. [1] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. [1] [2] [3] [4] Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. [1] [2] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press