bala

Forms

bala f (plural balas)^[1] The oldest spelling is balla;^[2][3][4] Pereira (1697) still gives Bala, ou balla.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French balle.^[2][5][3][1] The French word for a bale is Gallo-Romance and goes back to Frankish *balla, while that for a ball and bullet, recorded from 1534, is taken from northern Italian balla, the form of palla, from Lombardic *balla.^[6][2] Houaiss treats the senses as one word that spread from French to the other Romance languages through Occitan;^[2][3][7][8] Machado, Aurélio and the DLP give the bale and the bullet separate articles, the bale from French, the bullet from the Italian word directly or through French.^[2][3][7][8] Cunha takes the bullet from French, from the Italian word, from Lombardic *ballo.^[5]

The Germanic source is Proto-Germanic *ballô (“ball”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰoln-, probably from a root *bʰel- (“to swell”).^[9][1] The same Germanic word gave Ball, Ballen and ball.^[9][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, of 1339, is in the sense “bale of goods”: duas ballas de coelho ou de cera ou doutro auer “two bales of rabbit or of wax or of other goods”.^[3][2] The sense “projectile” is recorded in the 17th century, in the Conquista do Reino de Pegu: the walls were so strong que sacudiam as balas da artelharia “that they shook off the artillery balls”.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) defines bala as the round shot loaded into artillery and other firearms and lists several kinds of artillery shot;^[10][11] Morais (1813) records the figurative sense, a piece of news that overwhelms one, and the bales of paper, cotton or books.^[10][11] Printers called balas the leather pads stuffed with wool used to ink the type.^[11][2]

Houaiss dates the Brazilian sense “sweet, candy” to 1899, and Figueiredo's dictionary of that year records it as a word of southern Brazil for a boiled sweet.^[2][12] Houaiss also records informal senses “money” and, in Mozambique, “an attractive woman”, and the DLP gives an Angolan adjective “excellent” and an Angolan noun for the dried cassava tuber.^[2][8] Brazilian slang uses the word for an ecstasy pill.^[1]

Timeline

• 1339 – balla “bale of goods”.^[3][2]
• 17th century – bala “projectile” in the Conquista do Reino de Pegu.^[3][2]
• 1697 – Pereira gives Bala, ou balla.^[4]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes the kinds of artillery shot.^[10]
• 1813 – Morais records the figurative sense and the printers' balas; first record of balaço and balázio.^[11][5]
• 1899 – the Brazilian sense “sweet” in Figueiredo's dictionary; first record of balear.^[2][12][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bullet: a projectile, usually metal and now cylindrical with a rounded point, fired from a firearm.^[2][7][1]
2. The cartridge as a whole, projectile and charge together.^[2][7]
3. Any small ball made to be thrown: balas de papel.^[2]
4. (Brazil) A small sweet or candy of hard or chewy sugar: bala de hortelã.^[2][7][1]
5. A bale of goods; a bale of paper of ten reams.^[2][8]
6. (informal) Money.^[2]
7. (Mozambique, informal) An attractive woman.^[2]
8. (Brazil, slang) An ecstasy pill.^[1]

Word family

• balaço
• balázio
• balear
• baleiro
• baladeira
• homem-bala
• bala perdida

Related words

• bola
• French balle
• Italian palla

Usage notes

Bala perdida is a stray bullet, and como uma bala “like a bullet” means very fast.^[2][13] Brazil is divided over the word for a sweet: bala in the south, south-east and parts of the north-east, bombom or confeito in much of the north and north-east, caramelo in the centre-west.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. bala
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. bala
4. ^ a b c Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. bala
5. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. bala
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. balle
7. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. bala
8. ^ a b c d Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. bala
9. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 50
10. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. bala
11. ^ a b c d Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 253
12. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 167
13. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. bala