English
balcony
Balcony comes from Italian balcone ‘balcony, floor-length window’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *balkô ‘beam, balk’.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*balkô‘beam, balk’reconstructed
- Frankishc. 250–700*balkōreconstructed
- Medieval Latinmodernbalcō
- Italianc. 1300–presentbalcone‘balcony, floor-length window’
- Englishearliest quotation 1834balcony
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*balkô‘beam, balk’reconstructed
- Frankishc. 250–700*balkōreconstructed
- Medieval Latinmodernbalcō
- Italianc. 1300–presentbalcone‘balcony, floor-length window’
- Englishearliest quotation 1834balcony
Earliest quotation: 1834, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, London: Richard Bentley: “I sprang a step forward; when two shadows were…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵ- ‘beam, plank’
block, bulk, plank, phalanx, fulcrum, phalanges, 15 more
through Proto-Germanic *balkô ‘beam, balk’
Today it means
noun An accessible structure extending from a building, especially outside a window.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *balkô / balcony