Etymologically
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ballet

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ba.lɛ/[1]

Forms

ballet m (plural ballets)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian balletto (“little dance; danced scene”) (16th century),[2][3][4][5] the diminutive in “-etto” of “ballo” “ball, dance”, the noun of “ballare” “to dance”, which corresponds to Old French “baller” (see bal).[2][4] Wiktionary takes “ballare” from Late Latin ballō, and Etymonline from Greek “ballizein” “to dance, jump about”.[1][6] Littré called it simply a diminutive of “bal”.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Marnix (1598) and d'Aubigné, who writes that Les nymphes descendirent pour danser un ballet, are the first records;[8][9][7] Bloch and Wartburg give 1578.[3]

Semantic evolution

As in Italian it names a dance performed on stage by several people, and by metonymy the company of dancers and the music (Coppélia, by Delibes).[2][9] The 17th century had the ballets de cour and the hybrid comédie-ballet and opéra-ballet, and the 20th the Ballets russes, corps de ballet and maître de ballet.[2][5][9] From about 1950 it is figuratively an intense round of comings and goings (le ballet diplomatique); ballets roses (1958) alludes to a sex scandal.[2][5] Stravinsky (1921) used balletomane.[2] English ballet was borrowed from French in the 1660s.[6]

Timeline

  • 1578 – First record, according to Bloch and Wartburg.[3]
  • 1598 – In Marnix.[8]
  • 1660s – English ballet.[6]
  • 1921 – Balletomane in Stravinsky.[2]
  • c. 1950 – Figurative ballet.[2]
  • 1958 – Ballets roses.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A ballet: danser un ballet, ballet classique, corps de ballet.[5][10]
  2. The music for a ballet.[5][9]
  3. A ballet company: les Ballets russes.[5][10]
  4. (figurative) A round of comings and goings: le ballet diplomatique.[5][10]

Word family

  • ballerine
  • balletomane

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  9. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)