balza

Forms

balza f (plural balze)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin baltea, the plural of balteum (“belt, strap”), taken as a feminine singular.^[2][3][4] In the language of the amphitheatre the Latin plural named the walls that divided the tiers of seats, and Nocentini sees a metaphor from the landscape: a level strip between two drops.^[2][3][5] DEI compares cengia “ledge”, from Latin cingula (“girdle”), and finds the same change in Occitan bauso (“precipice”) and Sicilian vàusu.^[6][3] DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance neuter */ˈbalti-u/ with two meanings, “band for tying” and “strip of land above a hollow”; its plural gave feminine words in Italian, Friulian, Catalan and Portuguese.^[7]

balteo is the learned doublet.^[8][2] Meyer-Lübke derived both this word and balzare from balteus.^[9][10] Körting instead took the rock sense from the verb, which he traced to a *ballizāre, and kept only the sense “hem” for the Latin noun.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Sienese document of 1303, where balza is a ledge jutting from a mountain.^[11][3] DELI's first date is the Italian translation of Aesop, about 1325, for a steep, broken place: “coming to a great crag, he broke into a run” (Giugnendo ad una grande balza, mossesi a corsa).^[2][12]

Semantic evolution

Poliziano pictures a peasant girl spinning under a balza while she minds the geese, and Ariosto writes of hurrying “over mountains and crags” (per monti e balze).^[12] Old Sienese also used the word for a hobble.^[11]

The meaning of a band came back in dress: a strip of cloth at the hem of women's clothes and curtains from Poliziano (before 1494), a fringe in 1918, and the white mark above a horse's hoof in Florio (1598).^[2] DEI and Battaglia list the dress sense as a separate head, but give it the same origin.^[6][12] In the 19th century the word also meant the veil hung from a lady's hat.^[12] In Umbria balza is a sheaf of wheat or the handful of straw that ties it.^[13] The balze of Volterra are a well-known landscape of eroded clay cliffs.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 1303 – Balza “ledge” is recorded in a Sienese document.^[11][3]
• c. 1325 – The Italian Aesop uses it for a crag.^[2]
• Before 1494 – Poliziano uses it for a band at the hem of a dress.^[2]
• 1598 – Florio records the sense “white mark on a horse's foot”.^[2]
• 1918 – Panzini records the sense “fringe”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A steep, rocky place; a crag or cliff.^{[4][5][14][1]}
2. A short ledge that breaks a cliff or a mountainside; a terrace running round a hill.^[4][14][15]
3. A strip of cloth, often gathered or pleated, sewn on dresses, curtains and the like; a flounce: gonna a balze.^{[4][14][8][1]}
4. The border that frames a tapestry.^[4][5][8]
5. The lower band of a room's walls, painted or covered differently from the rest.^[8][15]
6. The white mark above a horse's hoof; same as balzana.^[4][8][16]

Related words

• balzo
• balzare
• balteo
• balzano
• balzana
• Latin balteum

Usage notes

Balza is also a present form of balzare “to leap”, a verb that DELI and GRADIT derive from a Vulgar Latin *balteāre formed on baltea in the sense “crag”.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 420
7. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
8. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ 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, p. 2, 24
13. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 4, 970
14. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli