balena

Forms

balena f (plural balene)^[1] Old variants are Old Italian badalena, Old Italian ballena and, in Lombardy, barena.^[2][3] A Pisan bestiary of about 1300 has Old Italian baliena.^[4][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ballaena (“whale”), with the later forms ballēna and a spoken *balēna.^[4][5][6][1] Both types, with ⟨ll⟩ and with ⟨l⟩, survive in the dialects;^[4][7] Prati derived the standard word from the form with one ⟨l⟩ and the Lombard and Neapolitan forms from the one with two.^[4][7] The same word is French baleine, Occitan balena, Catalan ballena and Spanish ballena.^[8][9]

The Latin word corresponds to Ancient Greek φάλαινα (phálaina) or φάλλαινα (phállaina);^[3][10][11] Festus already said that the name came from Greek, with ⟨b⟩ for ⟨ph⟩ as in burrum and buxum.^[3][10][11] The ⟨b⟩ is the difficulty.^[12][8] Nocentini and Devoto think of an intermediary, Devoto a Messapic one in which Greek ⟨ph⟩ from older /bʰ/ matched a /b/;^[8][13] DEI proposes a mixture of the Greek word with an Illyrian one in the region of the Messapians, and DELI asks whether Latin and Greek took the word from the same language, perhaps Illyrian.^[14][4] Leumann held that Latin took it straight from Greek, and the ⟨ae⟩ of the second syllable shows that the borrowing was not very old.^[12] Nocentini adds that the word came by speech, since the learned borrowing of the same Greek word is falena.^[8]

In Latin the word could name several sea animals: the whale, the sea monster pristis, a large dolphin, and even the seal.^[3][4] Only the great whale survived in the Romance languages, helped by the bestiaries, where it was the monster of the ocean.^[3][4] Isidore of Seville already described the animal as it is known today, though he derived its name from βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”), because it spouts water.^[11][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Italian record is in the poetry of Bonagiunta Orbicciani of Lucca, from before 1260.^[2][3] The Tuscan translation of the Tesoro (13th century) explains that a great sea fish called cete is “by many called balena”, and calls it the fish that swallowed Jonah.^[4][11]

Semantic evolution

For medieval writers the balena was a fish of marvellous size that spouts water higher than any other.^[2][15] By the 15th century a baleniera was a rowing boat (Luca Pulci, before 1470).^[4] From 1663 it was a ship for whaling.^[4] In the 19th century balene were also the strips of whalebone used in umbrellas and corsets.^[15]

The figurative sense of a very fat woman is recorded from 1876.^[4][11] In the 1970s and 1980s journalists called the Christian Democrat party the Balena bianca, after the whale in Moby Dick, for its size and long life.^[11][16] The word also names the constellation Cetus, translating the Latin name of the monster killed by Perseus.^[11][2]

Italian passed the word on to Albanian, Maltese and Ottoman Turkish, whence modern Turkish balina.^[1]

Timeline

• Before 1260 – Bonagiunta Orbicciani of Lucca uses balena.^[2][3]
• Before 1274 – Old Lombard barena appears in Barsegapè.^[3]
• 13th century – The Tuscan Tesoro calls the cete a balena.^[4]
• About 1300 – A Pisan bestiary has baliena.^[4][3]
• Before 1470 – Luca Pulci uses baleniera for a rowing boat.^[4]
• 1663 – Baleniera “whaling ship” appears in Oudin's dictionary.^[4][7]
• Before 1698 – Balenotto “young whale” is recorded.^[4]
• 1819 – Balenottera “rorqual” is recorded.^[4][8]
• 1876 – The sense “fat woman” is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) A whale: a huge marine mammal with a fish-like body and a blowhole on top of the head; in particular a whale of the genus Balaena, with baleen plates in place of teeth.^[5][17][18]
2. Any large cetacean.^[19][17]
3. (figurative, derogatory) A very fat person, especially a woman.^[5][6][20]
4. (astronomy) Balena: the constellation Cetus.^[19][20][16]
5. (road building) A temporary movable platform for unloading earth at the front of an embankment.^[5][18]
6. (politics, journalism) Balena bianca: the Christian Democrat party.^[6][16][11]

Word family

• balenottera
• balenotto
• baleniera
• baleniere
• baleniero
• baleneria
• balenide

Related words

• falena
• Latin ballaena
• French baleine

Usage notes

Stecche di balena are whalebone stays, and olio di balena is whale oil.^[20][17] Balena is also a form of the verb balenare (third person singular present, second person singular imperative).^[21] Meyer-Lübke found it unlikely that balenare and baleno “lightning” come from the name of the whale.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 4, 784
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 102
8. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ 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
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 55
14. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 413
15. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
18. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
19. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
20. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
21. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org