bola

Forms

bola f (plural bolas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Occitan bola (“ball”), from Latin bulla (“bubble; knob, ball”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas notes that medieval Spanish said pella for “ball” (Berceo and others), and that the Occitan word probably came in first as the name of the balls of a game, like the foreign words pelota, canica and birlo.^[2] Portuguese bola and Catalan bola were borrowed in the same way; the only native outcome of the Latin word in the Iberian Peninsula is Old Catalan bolla, today only Balearic.^[2] Wiktionary allows for a Vulgar Latin *bolla as the source, and lists the doublets bula, bolla and bollo.^[1]

The same Latin word is French boule, first as bole (about 1175), and Italian bolla.^[5][6]

The origin of the Latin noun is uncertain: Wiktionary considers a Gaulish source and the roots Proto-Indo-European *bew- (“to swell”) or *bʰel- (“to blow, swell up”), and the word may be expressive in the end.^[1][5] Gómez de Silva derives it from *beu- (“to swell”).^[7] Covarrubias (1611) offered the Greek verb Ancient Greek βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”), because the balls of the game are thrown, beside the Latin word for the bubble that forms on water.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a Latin–Spanish glossary of about 1400 in the Escorial library, where bola renders a Latin word for a round body.^[2][3][9] In the 15th century it also names a game: tu me juegas a la bola “you play ball with me”, a line of the poet Pinar, means “you trifle with me”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias (1611) defines it as a solid round body, usually the wooden ball of the game of skittles.^[8] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) notes that the iron or lead balls fired by guns are rather called balas, records bola as a word of the thieves' slang for a fair, and the phrase dale bola, said in annoyance at being pestered.^[10]

The colloquial sense “lie, false rumour” appears in the second quarter of the 18th century; it is shared by Spain and the Americas, by Catalan and, earlier, by Occitan and French, and Corominas thinks it was probably taken from French, where boule “lie” and the verb boler “to deceive” were common, though the metaphor of a swollen thing for a false one could have arisen anywhere.^[2] He rejects the idea that the slang bulo “false news” is a variant of bola.^[2]

In the Americas bola has many senses of its own: a large amount in Mexico, Bolivia and Ecuador, a riot or revolution in Mexico and Nicaragua, a ball in baseball, and the boleadoras used to catch animals in the Río de la Plata.^[4][11]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – a Latin–Spanish glossary of the Escorial records the word.^[2][9]
• 15th century – bola names a ball game in the verse of Pinar.^[9]
• 1495 – Nebrija has bola de madera, a wooden ball.^[12]
• 1552 – the derivative bolo “skittle” is first recorded.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as the ball of the game of skittles.^[8]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the slang sense “fair” and the phrase dale bola.^[10]
• 18th century – the colloquial sense “lie” appears in the second quarter of the century.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ball, a sphere of any material: una bola de acero.^[4][1]
2. A marble (canica), the small glass ball of the children's game.^[4]
3. A game in which an iron ball is thrown by hand, won by the player whose ball goes farthest.^[4]
4. In some card games, such as tresillo, the winning of all the tricks by one player.^[4]
5. (nautical) A signal made of two crossed black disks, which looks like a ball from afar.^[4]
6. Shoe polish.^[4]
7. (colloquial) A lie or false rumour, often spread for political ends: Eso que cuentan es una bola.^[4][2]
8. (vulgar, usually in the plural) A testicle.^[4][1]
9. (baseball, Caribbean, Mexico, Central America) A pitch outside the strike zone, a ball.^[4]
10. (Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Uruguay; usually in the plural) The boleadoras, weighted balls thrown to catch animals or as a weapon.^[4]
11. (Bolivia, Ecuador, Mexico) A heap, a great quantity: una bola de gente.^[4][11]
12. (Colombia, Cuba, Mexico) A tender cut of beef used for steaks.^[4]
13. (Mexico, Nicaragua) A brawl, a riot, a revolution.^[4][11]

Word family

• bolear
• embolar
• bolo
• boleadoras
• bolillo

Related words

• bula
• bollo
• bulo
• pella
• Latin bulla
• Portuguese bola
• French boule

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include bola de nieve, the shrub mundillo and figuratively a tangled affair, bola del mundo “globe”, correr la bola “to spread a rumour” in much of Latin America, and dar bola a alguien “to pay attention to someone” in South America.^[4]

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 i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 616
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bola
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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. bola
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. boule
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 120
8. ^ 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. 325
9. ^ a b c d 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. 534
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 637
11. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. bola
12. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 304