Etymologically
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ballo

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Pronunciation

Forms

ballo m (plural balli)[1] Old forms include Old Italian balo and Old Italian bal, and the plurals Old Italian bagli and Old Italian bai.[2]

Etymology

It is a deverbal noun of ballare (“to dance”).[3][4][5][6][2] The same formation is French bal, Old Occitan bal and Catalan balla (“dance party”).[7][6]

The verb is Late Latin ballāre, first found in Augustine.[3][4] DELI and Nocentini derive it from Ancient Greek βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”), whose variant πάλλω (pállō, “to swing, shake”) could also mean “to dance”, and Nocentini points to βαλλίζω (ballízō, “to dance”), used in the Greek of Sicily and southern Italy.[3][4][7] Otto Haas instead connected that Greek verb with an orgiastic dance of Phrygian cult around a phallus;[3] DELI says the history of the word is less simple than it looks.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia quae dicuntur super natura feminarum, of the first half of the 13th century, for dancing to music at feasts and ceremonies.[2][4] DELI dates the sense to Dino Compagni's Cronica (1310–1312), where the streets of a city greeting its lord are filled with dances and instruments.[3]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio used the word for one round of dancing (1348–1353).[3] Old Italian already had the phrase essere in ballo, to be caught up in a difficult business, and uscire dal ballo, to get out of trouble.[2] Today in ballo means “at stake”, and tirare or mettere in ballo is to bring a person or question into a matter.[8][9][10] The proverb siamo in ballo e bisogna ballare says that one must finish what one has started.[8]

Ballo di San Vito, the popular name of chorea, is recorded in 1792, and corpo di ballo, the permanent dancers of a theatre, in 1808.[3] The sense “dance party, ball” is in the title of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera (1859), and a kind of dance music in 1955.[3] The word also names a stage work of dance and mime, the jolting of a vehicle, and the circling of tuna in a tuna-net.[5][11][10] Ottoman Turkish borrowed it, and modern Turkish balo (“ball”) continues the loan.[1]

Timeline

  • First half of the 13th century – The Venetian Proverbia contain the first record.[2]
  • 1310–1312 – Dino Compagni uses ballo for dancing.[3]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for a single round of dancing.[3]
  • 1792 – Ballo di San Vito is recorded for chorea.[3]
  • 1808 – Corpo di ballo is recorded.[3]
  • 1859 – Verdi's Un ballo in maschera uses it for a dance party.[3]
  • 1955 – It is recorded for a kind of dance music.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The act or the art of dancing: Mia sorella prende lezioni di ballo il martedì.[5][8][11]
  2. A particular kind of dance and its music: La rumba è un ballo cubano.[5][8][9]
  3. A round of dancing: Mi concedi il prossimo ballo?[5][9][10]
  4. A dance party, a ball: il ballo di fine anno.[5][8][9]
  5. A stage work of dance and mime; a ballet.[8][9][11]
  6. (figurative) The jolting of a vehicle, ship or aircraft: Su quella strada sterrata la corriera faceva un ballo continuo.[5][11][12]
  7. The circling of tuna in the nets of a tuna fishery.[5]

Word family

  • balletto
  • ballonzolo

Usage notes

In ballo (“at stake; involved”), tirare in ballo and ballo liscio (traditional ballroom dances such as the waltz and the mazurka) are common set phrases.[9][5] DEI records a separate dialect ballo, the big nut thrown at the others in a children's game, from Sicilian baddu and Calabrian, connected with balla (“ball”).[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c 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 k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 417
  7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  10. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  11. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli