baile

Forms

baile m (plural bailes)^[1] Old Spanish spelt the word bayle as well as baile.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a noun from Spanish bailar, the verb “to dance”.^[4][1][5] Corominas takes the verb from Old Occitan balar (“to dance”), which comes from Late Latin ballāre.^[6][4] The ⟨i⟩ is not explained by that source: he supposes that, when the Occitan verb entered Spain, it crossed with a native bailar (“to rock (a cradle)”), still used in parts of the Alto Aragón, from bāiulāre (“to carry on the back”).^[6][4] Wiktionary instead calls the verb a borrowing of the Occitan form, and the DLE gives the Late Latin verb only with a “perhaps”.^[1][7]

For the Late Latin verb the DCECH and the DLE point to πάλλω (pállō, “to shake, swing”), and Wiktionary to βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”).^[6][7][1] Corominas notes that a native word would have given ⟨ballar⟩ in Castilian, and that before the 13th century Castile used sorar for dancing: the 10th-century Silos glossator did not understand the Latin verb and rendered it “to sing”.^[6] Related verbs are Catalan ballar, Old French baler and Italian ballare.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Gran Conquista de Ultramar (c. 1295, quoted from the edition of 1503), which tells of maidens who cantauan e fazían sus danças e bayles “sang and did their dances and bailes”.^[2][8] Corominas dates the noun to about 1300.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word stood beside danza, and Nebrija glossed baile o dança with Latin saltatio.^[2][3] The Tentative Dictionary and Alonso disagree about vayle in the Libro de buen amor (1466d): Alonso reads it as a dance, the Tentative Dictionary as the Aragonese “bailiff”.^[9][10]

Autoridades defines it as a gathering where people dance and as the act of dancing, and also as the sung and danced interlude between the second and third acts of Spanish comedies.^[11] The Academy added the named kinds of dance (minuet, fandango) in 1843, and in thieves' cant the word meant “thief”.^[12][13] The 1869 edition has baile de San Vito for a convulsive illness of children.^[14] The modern dictionary adds figurative senses: a mix-up of figures or letters, a reshuffle of posts or borders, and colloquially a row.^[15]

In the Americas the word is recorded from 1541, in Michoacán.^[16] Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay use it for a tight spot, and Honduras and El Salvador for repeated dribbling in ball games.^[17] The word passed into Tagalog and Cebuano as bayle.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1295 – the Gran Conquista de Ultramar names danças e bayles.^[2][8]
• 1454 – the Príncipe de Viana's chronicle tells of grandes bailes e danzas.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses the word with Latin saltatio.^[3][18]
• 1541 – first record in the Americas, in Michoacán.^[16]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines the dance and the theatrical interlude.^[11]
• 1843 – the Academy defines the named kinds of dance.^[12]
• 1899 – the Academy adds “the act of dancing” and the theatrical show.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of dancing; a dance.^[15][1]
2. Each style of dancing with its own pattern of steps: La cumbia es un baile de Colombia.^[15][1]
3. A party where people dance; a ball.^[15][1]
4. A public hall for dancing.^[15]
5. A piece of music written to be danced to.^[15]
6. The art of dancing: Estudió baile clásico en Madrid.^[15][1]
7. A mix-up in the order of something: baile de cifras.^[15][20]
8. Repeated changes in an arrangement or in who holds which post: baile de ministros.^[15][20]
9. (theatre, historical) A short 17th-century piece of music, song and dance played between the second and third acts of a comedy.^[15][11]
10. (colloquial) A row or violent quarrel.^[15]
11. (thieves' cant) A thief.^[15][13]
12. (Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay) A difficult situation.^[17]

Related words

• bailar
• bailarín
• danza
• French bal
• Italian ballo

Usage notes

The DLE has a second baile, the old bailiff or ordinary judge of certain towns of the Crown of Aragon, from Aragonese baile and ultimately Latin bāiulus (“porter”).^[15][11] Corominas takes it from Occitan baile, the official being compared to a man carrying a load, and dates it to the 13th-century Fuero de Tudela.^[21] In Mexico and Guatemala the word is often pronounced beile.^[22][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. baile
3. ^ a b c Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 301
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bailar
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. ballare
6. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 459
7. ^ a b Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. bailar
8. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. baile
9. ^ Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 481
10. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 67
11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 531
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 86
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 113
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 92
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. baile
16. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. baile
17. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. baile
18. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. baile2
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 119
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. baile
21. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 460
22. ^ Henríquez Ureña, Pedro (2015), Obras completas, vol. 12: 1936–1940 III, ed. Miguel D. Mena, Santo Domingo: Ministerio de Cultura, p. 105