balar

Forms

balar (first-person singular present balo, first-person singular preterite balé, past participle balado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin bālō (“to bleat”).^[2][3][4][1] The same word is Catalan balar and Portuguese balar, and the Catalan of the Pyrenees has belar;^[5][6] Machado takes the Portuguese verb, which keeps the /l/ between vowels, for a learned word.^[7] French bêler comes from a Late Latin variant bēlō, which de Vaan finds in glosses, and Old French also had baler.^[8][9]

The Latin verb imitates the cry of sheep: De Vaan notes that the bleating is rendered with /aː/ or /eː/ in the Indo-European languages, and suggests that the ending was taken from ululō (“to howl”), itself an imitative reduplication.^[9] Wiktionary derives it from an imitative Proto-Indo-European *bē-, comparing Ancient Greek βῆ (bê).^[1] Covarrubias (1611) explained the verb as proper to sheep, “which utter the letter B with their voice”, and the Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) formed it from their cry, written ⟨be⟩.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to the Libro de Alexandre, of the second quarter of the 13th century, and DEMel cites its form balauan “they bleated”.^[2][3][12] The Tentative Dictionary's first quotations are from Juan Ruiz's Libro de buen amor (1330–1343), where the verb is used of goats and of a sheep.^[13] Alfonso X's Estoria de España (1270–1284) uses it of the sheep that leave their folds.^[14]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias (1611) recorded the proverb oveja que bala bocado pierde “the sheep that bleats loses a mouthful”, said of those who talk while eating from the common dish and are left with nothing.^[10] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) added andar balando, to long for something eagerly, as ewes bleat when they look for their lambs or want food.^[11] From 1843 the Academy noted that this figurative verb takes the preposition por.^[15] The DLE keeps it as a colloquial and obsolete sense, “to sigh for”.^[4]

Cuervo's dictionary quotes the verb from Luis de Granada, Lope, Ercilla and Góngora.^[16] In Mexico, Molina's vocabulary of 1571 has balar la oveja, bramar el toro “the sheep bleats, the bull bellows”.^[17] Moliner extends it to the fallow deer and other animals with a similar cry.^[18]

Timeline

• 1230–1250 – balauan in the Libro de Alexandre.^[2][12]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses it of sheep.^[14]
• 1330 – the derivative balido “bleat” in Juan Ruiz.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: balar las ovejas, Latin balo.^[19]
• 1571 – the first record in the Americas, in Molina's vocabulary in Mexico City.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the proverb oveja que bala bocado pierde.^[10]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records andar balando “to long for something”.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the Latin etymon.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To bleat, of sheep, goats and deer: Los corderos balaban junto a la cerca.^[4][1][18]
2. (colloquial, obsolete) To long or sigh (suspirar) for something, with por.^[4]

Word family

• balido

Related words

• Latin bālō
• Portuguese balar

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 470
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. balar
4. ^ a b c d 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. balar
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
6. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 455
7. ^ Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 372
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 270
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 534
12. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. balar
13. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 68
14. ^ a b 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)
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 88
16. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1886–1893), Diccionario de construcción y régimen de la lengua castellana, vols. I–II (A–D), París: A. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 1, 846
17. ^ 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. balar
18. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. balar
19. ^ 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
20. ^ 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