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meatball

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Etymology and origin of the English word meatball

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
1801 More words from the 19th century
Ultimate origins
Old English meteProto-Germanic *balluz
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
English meat
English meatball
From the same root
English meaty ← meat

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈmiːtbɔːl/[1]
  • US: /ˈmiːtbɔːl/, /ˈmiːtbɑːl/[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from English meat + ball.[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ground meat rolled into a small ball: 1801 in Etymonline,[3] 1835 in the OED, in G. T. Temple's Excursions in the Mediterranean.[2] Dictionary.com dates it to 1830–40 and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1856.[4][5]

Semantic evolution

American slang made the meatball a stupid or dull person: Green's Dictionary of Slang has "dumb but happy" in a flapper's dictionary of 1922,[6] the OED dates the sense from 1937,[2] and Etymonline from 1941.[3] Green also records the adjective for a petty criminal charge, a meatball rap, from 1944.[6] Other uses come from the round shape: in baseball an easy pitch over the middle of the plate (1912), in the US Navy a pennant bearing a circle, and the rising-sun emblem of Japan (1919), and in aviation the ball of light that guides a pilot landing on a carrier deck (1957).[2]

Timeline

  • 1801 – ground meat rolled into a small ball.[3] The OED's first quotation is from 1835.[2]
  • 1912 – in baseball, an easy pitch.[2]
  • 1919 – a flag or pennant with a circle; the Japanese rising-sun emblem.[2]
  • 1922 – a stupid person.[6]
  • 1944 – adjective, of a petty criminal charge.[6]
  • 1957 – a light beam that guides aircraft landing.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small ball of minced or ground meat, often mixed with breadcrumbs, cooked and served in a sauce or soup: spaghetti with meatballs.[5][2][7]
  2. (slang, chiefly North American) A stupid, dull or ineffectual person.[7][5][2][6]
  3. (baseball) An easy pitch thrown over the middle of home plate.[2]
  4. (US Navy) A pennant awarded for battle efficiency or to an athletic champion.[5][2]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
Cite this entry

“Meatball.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/meatball. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·