ballerino

Forms

ballerino m (plural ballerini, feminine ballerina)^[1] An older form ballarino is used by Tasso and Marino.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Italian ballare + -ino, from the verb “to dance”.^[1][3][4] GRADIT analyses the suffix as ⟨-erino⟩.^[3] Sabatini–Coletti explain the ⟨e⟩ as the closing of the unstressed ⟨a⟩ before ⟨r⟩.^[4] Devoto derived the masculine from the feminine ballerina.^[5]

Ballare is Late Latin ballāre, used by Saint Augustine, which DELI takes from Ancient Greek βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”), a variant of πάλλω (pállō, “to shake”), sometimes used for dancing.^[6] Haas preferred βαλλίζω (ballízō, “to dance orgiastically”), a word of Magna Graecia.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Domenico Cavalca's Pungilingua (before 1342, Pisan), where people “have jesters, singers and dancers come to pass the time”: the professional dancer.^[6][7][2][8]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word named someone who dances for a living, but also anyone who dances for pleasure, and a dancing master.^[6][2][8] The feminine ballerina is recorded before 1492, in Lorenzo de' Medici.^[6][9] Tommaseo notes ballerino as a jibe at effeminate men.^[8]

The adjective, “that dances”, is recorded before 1729 in Salvini.^[6] From it come cavalli ballerini, circus horses (1947), and terre ballerine, the earthquake-prone lands of the south (Panzini, 1916), and the figurative “unsteady, changeable”, as in tempo ballerino.^[6][10][4] Plants and animals were named after the movement too: an orchid whose lip looks like a little dancing man, and in Venetia several lively animals.^[2][11]

English borrowed ballerina in 1792, and also has ballerino.^[12][1] German has Ballerino from 1879, and French has ballerine from 1858 and ballerin from 1893.^[9] The ballet flat called ballerina in Italian is recorded from 1954.^[9]

Timeline

• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses ballerini in the Pungilingua.^[6][7]
• Before 1492 – Lorenzo de' Medici uses the feminine ballerina.^[6]
• Before 1729 – Salvini uses ballerino as an adjective.^[6]
• 1792 – English borrows ballerina.^[12]
• 1858 – French ballerine is first recorded.^[9]
• 1879 – German Ballerino is first recorded.^[9]
• 1916 – Panzini records terre ballerine, lands prone to earthquakes.^[6]
• 1947 – Cavalli ballerini, circus horses, are recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dancer, especially a professional one; a ballet dancer (feminine ballerina): Fa il ballerino in una compagnia di Torino.^[3][13][10]
2. Someone who dances well or loves dancing: Mio nonno era un gran ballerino.^[3][10][14]
3. (botany) The man orchid (Aceras anthropophorum), whose lip resembles a human figure.^[3][13][15]
4. (zoology) The bluefish (Pomatomus saltator).^[3]
5. (printing) An extra inking roller that can be engaged or disengaged.^[3][13]

Adjective

1. Dancing, moving as in a dance; good at dancing: cavalli ballerini, circus horses.^[10][15][13]
2. (figurative) unsteady, changeable, unreliable: un tavolo ballerino, tempo ballerino.^[3][4][10]
3. (card games) In asso ballerino, the ace a poker player keeps with a pair to suggest three of a kind.^[13][15][14]

Related words

• ballare
• ballo
• ballata

Usage notes

Primo ballerino is the principal dancer of a company, and a ballerino di fila a dancer of the corps de ballet with no solo parts.^[14][13] Bomba ballerina was a hand grenade with a cloth tail used in the First World War.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
8. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c d e Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
10. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 416
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana