balanza

Forms

balanza f (plural balanzas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote balança, also valança and ualança; the spelling balanza appears from the middle of the 15th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish balança, inherited from Vulgar Latin *bilancia (“balance, scales”).^{[4][5][6][1][2]} Corominas takes this form, which all the Romance languages presuppose, to be an adjective derived from Late Latin bilanx (“having two scale-pans”) (4th century), a compound of bi- (“two”) and lanx (“dish; scale-pan”); it replaced the classical lībra.^[4][5][7]

The same Late Latin word is Italian bilancia, French balance, Occitan balança and Catalan balança.^[8][9][10] Portuguese balança was taken from Spanish, as the ⟨l⟩ shows.^[8][11][12] In his Catalan dictionary Coromines explains the ⟨a⟩ of the first syllable in the western Romance languages: a popular *belancia was changed to *balancia, as happened in other words of this shape.^[10] Gómez de Silva speaks of assimilation of the unstressed ⟨i⟩ to the following ⟨a⟩, while Bénaben recalls that French scholars explain the ⟨a⟩ of the French word by the influence of a verb meaning “to dance”.^[13][14]

De Vaan finds the old link of the Latin word for “dish” with Greek words for “crooked” unconvincing, and prefers Ernout and Meillet's view of a Mediterranean loanword shared with Ancient Greek λέκος (lékos, “dish, pan”).^[15][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Almerich's La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), in the plural and in a figurative use, in the interpretation of the writing on the wall in the Book of Daniel: fo pesado en las balanças e fue fallado menguado “he was weighed in the scales and found wanting”.^[2][16] The DHLE takes the sense there to be the scale-pan, though the plural may already stand for the whole instrument.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages balança meant above all the scale-pan, a sense already in customs tariffs of the late 13th century; the popular word for the whole instrument was peso.^[4][2] Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for both the pans and the instrument, and also for the pans of the constellation Libra.^[17] Covarrubias and the Academy, from Autoridades (1726) to its 1869 edition, defined balanza first as each of the two pans, and only secondly as the whole instrument.^[2][18][19] The 1884 edition made the instrument the first sense.^[20]

From the start the scales evoked justice and fairness, and the figurative senses followed: Alfonso X's en balança “in danger, in doubt” (1280), the comparison or judgement the mind makes of things, and the phrases caer la balanza “to tip to one side” and poner en balanza “to make waver”.^[17][2][21] In the thieves' slang of the 17th century it meant the gallows.^[22][23] The economic sense of balanza de comercio, the comparison of a country's imports and exports, entered the Academy's dictionary in 1869;^[19][6] balanza de pagos is now defined beside it.^[19][6] In Colombia, Cuba, Chile, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the River Plate it names the balancing pole of a tightrope walker.^[24][25]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar has balanças in a figurative use.^[2][16]
• c. 1240–1272 – Herman the German's translation of the Psalter has balança, the first record without a later copy.^[16]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses balanças and balança.^[17]
• third quarter of the 13th century – Corominas's first record, in the Alfonsine Libros del saber de astronomía.^[4][5]
• 1280 – the General Estoria has puesto en balança “weighed; put in doubt”.^[17]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives the Latin bilanx and librile.^[26]
• 1513 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[27]
• 1609 – Hidalgo's glossary of thieves' slang gives it as “gallows”.^[22]
• 1726 – Autoridades defines it as the pans of the scales.^[18]
• 1869 – balanza de comercio enters the Academy's dictionary.^[19]
• 1884 – the Academy defines it first as the whole instrument.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A balance, scales: an instrument for weighing: Pesó la harina en la balanza de la cocina.^[6][1][28]
2. (dated) A comparison or judgement that the mind makes of things.^[6][1]
3. (astronomy) The constellation and zodiac sign Libra.^[1][29]
4. (economics) In balanza comercial or balanza de comercio, the balance of trade; in balanza de pagos, the balance of payments.^[6][28]
5. (Latin America) The balancing pole of a tightrope walker.^[24][25]

Word family

• balance
• balancear
• balancín
• abalanzar
• balanzario

Related words

• Late Latin bilanx
• Catalan balança

Usage notes

The phrase inclinar la balanza means to tip a matter in someone's favour.^[28] En balanza or en balanzas meant “in danger, in doubt”.^[30][31]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. balanza
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. balanza
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 469
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. balanza
6. ^ a b c d e f 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. balanza
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. bilanx
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1103
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
10. ^ a b Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 1, 568
11. ^ Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 1, 370
12. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 451
13. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 107
14. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. balanza
15. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. lanx
16. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. balanza
17. ^ a b c d Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. balanza
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 534
19. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 93
20. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 131
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 114
22. ^ a b Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 161
23. ^ Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 428
24. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 131
25. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. balanza
26. ^ 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. balanza
27. ^ 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. balanza
28. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. balanza
29. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
30. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 88
31. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 216