balle

French has several words spelled balle: the ball, borrowed from Italian, and the bale of goods, from Frankish; a third, rarer balle is the husk of cereal grains.^[1][2][3]

balle¹ ball

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bal/^[4]

Forms

balle f (plural balles)^[4]

Etymology

The ball is borrowed from Italian balla, the northern Italian form of palla (“ball for the game of tennis”), which also came to mean the projectile of a firearm.^[2][1][5][6] Rey derives the Italian word, with a narrower sense, from Lombardic *balla, a Germanic word meaning “bundle, packet”, the same that came into French through Frankish as “balle” “bale”.^[2][7] Littré compared Old High German balla, German Ball, English ball and Old Norse böllr.^[8] Wiktionary calls the two French words doublets.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rabelais lists the game in Gargantua (1534): Gargantua jouoit à la grosse balle, kicking and punching it into the air.^[2][1][8]

Semantic evolution

It drove out the older pelote and éteuf for the ball used in games.^[2] Furetière (1690) records prendre la balle au bond “to seize an opportunity” and à vous la balle “your turn to speak”, and renvoyer la balle “to retort” is found in 1719.^[2] An enfant de la balle was first a tennis player's son brought up in the game, then a child of actors or circus people.^[5]

Rabelais also used it for a cannonball, a sense that lasted until the 18th century; the bullet of a hand gun dates from the end of the 16th century.^[2][8] In slang it meant a pound (1655), then a franc (1797), now sometimes a euro, after a number (cent balles); à deux balles means cheap, worthless.^[2][4] Under English influence it is used for the ball in football or basketball, and young people's c'est de la balle “it's great” is recorded in 1996.^[2]

Timeline

• 1534 – Rabelais' Gargantua.^[1][2]
• 16th century – A cannonball, Rabelais.^[2]
• Late 16th century – A bullet.^[2]
• 1655 – Slang “pound”.^[2]
• 1690 – Prendre la balle au bond, Furetière.^[2]
• 1797 – Slang “franc”.^[2]
• 1873 – Pare-balles.^[2]
• 1996 – C'est de la balle.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ball, a small elastic sphere used in games: balle de tennis, jouer à la balle; in football and other sports, the ball.^[3][9][2]
2. A shot, a stroke in a ball game: balle de match, faire des balles.^[3]
3. A bullet: une balle perdue, gilet pare-balles.^[10][4]
4. (slang) A franc; now, a euro: cent balles, à deux balles, cheap.^[10][4][2]
5. In phrases: prendre la balle au bond, se renvoyer la balle, to pass the buck, enfant de la balle.^[3][5]

Word family

• pare-balles

balle² bale

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bal/^[4]

Forms

balle f (plural balles)^[4]

Etymology

The bale is borrowed from Frankish *balla (“bundle, packet”), according to Wartburg, Rey, the Petit Robert and Larousse also take it from Frankish, which brought the word into French with its own sense.^{[1][2][3][10][11]} Littré thought it the same word as the ball, a bundle being something rounded.^[8] Spanish bala and Portuguese bala are borrowed from French.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bale is found in 1268 for a large bundle of goods.^[1][3]

Semantic evolution

It named large packs of goods wrapped in cloth and tied with cords, such as bales of cotton or coffee, and in farming the bales of hay or straw that replaced haystacks.^[3][10] Familiarly it once meant the face (1833).^[3] It gave emballer and déballer.^[3]

Timeline

• 1268 – Bale, a bundle of goods.^[1][3]
• 1833 – Familiar “face”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bale, large bundle of goods wrapped and tied: une balle de coton, de café.^[3][10]
2. A bale of hay or straw.^[3][10]
3. (familiar, dated) The face.^[3]

Word family

• emballer
• déballer
• ballot

Related words

• ballon

Usage notes

A third balle, also written bale or bâle, is the husk of cereal grains; it is found once about 1220 and again from 1549.^[12][1] The TLFi and the Grand Robert follow Gamillscheg and Dauzat in tracing it to a Gaulish *balu, while Bloch and Wartburg took it from the Old French verb baler “to winnow”.^[12][1][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b c d e f Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
11. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 15/1, 40a
12. ^ a b Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard