balcony

noun

bal·​co·​ny ˈbal-kə-nē How to pronounce balcony (audio)
plural balconies
1
: a platform that projects from the wall of a building and is enclosed by a parapet or railing
2
: an interior projecting gallery in a public building (such as a theater)
balconied adjective

Illustration of balcony

Illustration of balcony
  • balcony 1

Examples of balcony in a Sentence

We asked for a hotel room with a balcony. on summer mornings I often have breakfast out on the balcony
Recent Examples on the Web The most central location for exploring, Mallorcan friends said, was the Jumeirah Port Sóller Hotel, which is perched on a precipice roughly in the middle of the coast, with panoramic sea views from every balcony. Tony Perrottet, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 Mar. 2024 Sabalenka will be playing for the first time since the death of her ex-boyfriend, who jumped from the balcony of a Bal Harbour hotel on Sunday night. Michelle Kaufman, Miami Herald, 21 Mar. 2024 Instead of consoling her during the crisis, her partner took space outside on the balcony with the door closed. Kathleen Wong, USA TODAY, 21 Mar. 2024 Near a desk by the balcony were two kafigeledjo figures from the Senufo people of West Africa. Zach Helfand, The New Yorker, 18 Mar. 2024 The views are best showcased in the elegant formal dining room, the kitchen, the family room, and, of course, from the wraparound balcony that is connected to most of the communal spaces on the main level. Emma Reynolds, Robb Report, 14 Mar. 2024 The terrace rooms offer balconies with amazing views. Essence, 11 Mar. 2024 The house has plaster walls, a curved staircase, original hardwood pegged flooring on the second level, a balcony off the back from the primary bedroom, two fireplaces — one in the living room and one in the primary bedroom — and large windows throughout that allow for lots of light. Brendel Hightower, Detroit Free Press, 10 Mar. 2024 According to police and prosecutors, the juvenile defendants, some in ski masks, made their way up to an outdoor balcony and burst into the upstairs bedroom of the Airbnb rental home where Pop Smoke, born Bashar Jackson, was taking a shower shortly after 4 a.m. Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 11 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'balcony.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Italian balcone, earlier also "window (opening), bay window," probably, via the sense "board closing a window, shutter" (as in Upper Italian —15th-century Venetian— balchon "window shutter"), from balc- (borrowed from Langobardic *balkōn "beam," going back to Germanic) + -one, noun suffix, going back to Latin -ō, -ōn-, suffix of nouns denoting persons with a prominent feature — more at balk entry 2

Note: The Germanic n-stem *balkōn has been adapted to Italo-Romance by means of the suffix -one; parallel adaptations are Italian gherone "gusset, gore," going back, via Langobardic, to Germanic *gaizōn "wedge, flap of a garment" (see gore entry 1); magone (early and regional) "stomach, gizzard," going back to Germanic *magōn "stomach." Balcone in the sense "window" is attested in literary Tuscan since Boccaccio (1341) and persists into the twentieth century most strongly in dialects of the northeast (Veneto, Trentino, Friuli—see Lessico etimologico italiano, Germanismi, vol. 1); attestations in Medieval Latin go back to the twelfth century or earlier. Presumably this meaning is an extension from earlier "shutter," attested in a narrower range of Upper Italian dialects and going back to the fifteenth century in a Venetian text. H. and R. Kahane ("Balcone, the Window," Romance Philology, vol. 30, no. 4 [May, 1977], pp. 565-73) take "board closing a glassless window opening" as the original Langobardic meaning. Note in this regard balcón "trapdoor in the floor of a hayloft" in a dialect of Ticino, with comparable forms and senses in Ladin. A different angle appears to be followed by the Lessico, which points to the meaning "plank floor" (ballatoio), attested as Upper Italian balcon (thirteenth century), Genoese barcon (before 1311), and Piedmontese balcon (thirteenth century). The sense "plank floor" would then have hypothetically been extended to "window sill" (which would have been at or slightly above the level of the floor), and then "window opening." The Lessico records the sense "balcony" in the vernacular in 1312, though Latin forms of the word—in either the sense "balcony" or "opening for a window, bay"— are significantly earlier; according to the Kahanes, who believed balcones was broadcast through western Europe by the Cluniac reforms, they can be dated to the tenth century in England, though this would be earlier than Italian records. The later promulgation of the Italian word to European languages in the quite specific sense "balcony" was a product of the Renaissance and the influence of Italian architecture.

First Known Use

1618, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of balcony was in 1618

Dictionary Entries Near balcony

Cite this Entry

“Balcony.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/balcony. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

balcony

noun
bal·​co·​ny ˈbal-kə-nē How to pronounce balcony (audio)
plural balconies
1
: a platform enclosed by a low wall or railing and built out from the side of a building
2
: a platform inside a building extending out over part of the main floor (as of a theater)

More from Merriam-Webster on balcony

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