Art & MusicGreek → English
Ballet
/bæˈleɪ/noun
A theatrical dance form using a codified vocabulary of steps and positions.
The Greek roots
βαλλίζειν
ballízein
to dance, to jump about
Literally: “little dance”
Follow a root:βαλλίζειν3 words
The story of the word
Late Latin ballare, to dance, is usually traced back to Greek βαλλίζειν, a verb for dancing and leaping about, though the derivation is argued and some scholars prefer a native Italic source. Italian built ballo and the diminutive balletto; French took ballet; English had it by the 1660s, when the form still meant court spectacle rather than theatre. Ball, the dance, and ballad, once a song you danced to, come down the same line.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → Italian → French → English
- First recorded
- 1660s
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
ballballadballerinaballroom
In a sentence
He was dragged to the ballet at eleven and never got over it.