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.

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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