balcony
pronunciation
How to pronounce balcony in British English:
UK [ˈbælkəni]
How to pronounce balcony in American English:
US [ˈbælkəni]
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- Noun:
- an upper floor projecting from the rear over the main floor in an auditorium
- a platform projecting from the wall of a building and surrounded by a balustrade or railing or parapet
Word Origin
- balcony
- balcony: [17] Balcony entered English from Italian balcone, but it seems to be ultimately of Germanic origin. It was probably borrowed into Old Italian, with the meaning ‘scaffold’. from Germanic *balkon ‘beam’, source of English balk – perhaps from the notion of a platform or scaffold being built from beams of timber, although the connection is not altogether clear.=> balk
- balcony (n.)
- 1610s, from Italian balcone, from balco "scaffold," from a Germanic source (perhaps Langobardic *balko- "beam," cognate with Old English balca "beam, ridge;" see balk (n.)) + Italian augmentative suffix -one. Till c. 1825, regularly accented on the second syllable.
Example
- 1. He claims that he himself leapt from the balcony .
- 2. But the auditorium is like a cinema , with the circle and the balcony isolated from the stage .
- 3. We stopped outside a hut on stilts . Kim had been told I was coming and was there on the balcony .
- 4. I watched the man on the balcony .
- 5. A nondescript motel balcony in memphis .