balloon

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A small rubber bag that is filled with air or gas, used as a toy or decoration.

   The children filled the room with colourful balloons for the party.

2. 2
   noun

   A large bag filled with hot air or gas that can carry people through the sky.

   We floated over the valley in a hot-air balloon.

3. 3
   verb

   To grow or expand quickly.

   The company's debts ballooned over just a few months.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Balloon was adopted in the late 16th century from French or Italian and ultimately comes from the same root as ball. It first referred to a ball game or a spherical architectural ornament, then to such things as fireworks and inflated people, before being applied to lighter-than-air craft in the late 18th century and to toy balloons around 1800.

First use appears c. 1591, "a game played with a large, inflated leather ball" (possibly via Middle French ballon) from Italian pallone (“large ball”) from palla (“ball”), from Lombardic *palla. The Northern Italian form, balla (“ball-shaped bundle”), today a doublet, likely derived from Old French balle, from Frankish *balla (“ball”), and may have influenced the spelling of this word. Both Germanic words are from Proto-Germanic *ballô (“ball”), *balluz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰoln- (“bubble”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to blow, swell, inflate”). Akin to Old High German ballo, bal…

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary