Forms: 6 ballone, balonne, 6–7 baloun(e, 7 balone, -oone, balloone, 8–9 ballon, 8– balloon. [ad. It. ballone ‘great ball, footeball’ (Florio, 1598), augmentative of balla BALL sb.1 Cf. F. ballon (16th c.), which balloon subseq. followed in its senses.]
† 1. A large inflated ball of strong double leather, struck to and fro by the arm defended by a bracer of wood. Obs.
1598. Florio, Ballone, a great ball, a ballone to play at with braces, a footeball.
1626. T. H., trans. Caussin’s Holy Crt., 234. Windblowne Balones … tossed this way and that way, sometyme with the foote, sometyme with the hand.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., II. iii. 88. The balloon or wind-ball resembled the follis of the Romans.
† 2. The game played with this ball. Obs.
1580. North, Plutarch (1656), 960. He would play at Tennis, and at the Ballone.
1636. Randolph, in Ann. Dubrensia (1877), 19. Foote-ball with vs, may be with them Baloone.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, II. 137. Being challenged by an Italian Gentleman to play at Baloun.
1820. Scott, Monast., xxi. The winning party at that wondrous match at ballon.
† 3. Pyrotechny. ‘A ball of pasteboard, stuffed with combustible matter, which, when fired [from a mortar], mounts to a considerable height in the air, and then bursts into bright sparks of fire resembling stars.’ J. Also attrib. in balloon-wheel. Obs. (Now called shell or bomb.)
1634. J. B[ate], Myst. Nat. & Art, II. 83. How to make Balloones, also the Morter Peece to discharge them … Into this Balloone you may put Rockets, Serpents, Starres, Fiends, Petards.
1688. in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 344, IV. 112. Several thousands of Baloons that are to be shot into the air.
1753. Publ. Advertiser, 24 Sept., 3/2. Order of Firing … (2) Sky-rockets … (4) Two Air Balloons … (13) Two Balloons … (19) A large Balloon Wheel which throws out of eight Boxes, Stars and Serpents.
4. Arch. A round ball or globe placed on the top of a pillar, pier, etc., to crown it.
1656. in Blount, Glossogr.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., A balloon is to be proportioned to the magnitude, and altitude of the body.
1875. Gwilt, Archit., Balloon … the same name is given to the balls on the top of cathedrals, as at … St. Paul’s in London.
5. Chem. A large globose glass vessel, with one or more short necks, used to receive the products of distillation, etc.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Balloon or Ballon.
1783. Priestley, in Phil. Trans., LXXIII. 417. Interposing a large glass balloon between the retort and the recipient for the air.
1854. Scoffern, in Orr’s Circ. Sc., Chem. 160. Let it pass through a glass balloon.
6. An air-tight envelope of paper, silk, or similar material, usually globose or pear-shaped, which, when inflated with light gas, rises in the air, and will carry with it a considerable weight; to large balloons a car strong enough to carry human beings can be attached, and hence they are used for observing atmospheric phenomena, for military reconnoitring, and, though with little success at present, as a means of travelling through the air.
1783. Europ. Mag., IV. 272. Monsieur de Montgolfiers Air Balloon.
1783. Cowper, Lett., 29 Sept. What is your opinion of these air balloons? I am quite charmed with the discovery.
1785. Priestley, in Phil. Trans., LXXV. 297. Filling balloons with the lightest inflammable air.
1803. Wordsw., Blind Highl. Boy, xxxiv. The bravest traveller in balloon Mounting as if to reach the Moon.
1831. Lardner, Pneumat., vii. 339. The step from fire balloons to balloons filled with gas … was now easy and obvious.
7. fig. Anything inflated, empty and hollow.
1812. Byron, Parenthet. Address. Borne in the vast balloon of Busby’s song.
1829. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), I. 272. The hollow balloon of popular applause.
8. Horticulture: a. A method of training fruit-trees in which the branches are curved from a height of six or seven feet down to the ground, forming the shape of a balloon. b. A balloon-shaped trellis for training plants upon.
1834. Penny Cycl., II. 191/1. A mode of managing apple-trees called Balloon training.
1881. Gard. Chron., XVI. 336. Plants that have been trained on balloons twenty years ago, are treated in the same way still.
9. The balloon-shaped outline containing words represented in comic engravings as issuing from the mouth of a person.
10. Comb. a. objective with vbl. sb. or agent-noun, as balloon-driver, -flying; b. similative, as balloon-cap, -foresail, -sleeve. Also balloon-brasser (cf. F. brassart ‘the woodden cuffe or bracer worne by Balloone-players,’ (Cotgr., 1611); balloon-fish (see quot.); balloonful, as much as a balloon will hold; balloon-like a., like a balloon, immoderately swollen or puffed up.
1650. Weldon, Crt. K. James (1817), 47. Lifting up his hand over his head with a *Ballon brasser.
1780–6. J. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Odes R. Acad., Wks. 1794, I. 116. A *balloon cap, a shawl, a muff.
1838. Lett., in H. Turner, Astra Castra, 403. That … safest *balloon-driver in the world … Mr. Green.
1834. Griffith, Cuvier’s Anim. K., X. 579. From the faculty they [the Diodontes] possess of distending their bodies with air, these fishes have received the vulgar name of … *balloon-fish.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Balloon-fish, a plectognathous fish, covered with spines.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. III. viii. 130. A Golden or Paper Age of Hope; with its horse-racings, *balloon flyings, [etc.].
1883. Times, 27 Aug., 8/2. With *balloon foresails and flying jibs doing good service.
1883. St. James’s Gaz., 5 May. A *balloonful of lofty aims … and soaring ideas.
1861. A. Wynter, Soc. Bees, 120. The dominant *balloon-like tumour.
1879. Geo. Eliot, Theo. Such, 96. His addled originalities … and balloon-like conclusions.
1860. All Y. Round, 477. By the help of *balloon sleeves and peg-tops.
Hence Balloonation, ballooning, Balloonism, Balloonomania (all used by Horace Walpole). Also the nonce-words: Balloonacy (with word-play on lunacy), mania for ballooning. Balloonatic a. and sb. (cf. lunatic), (one who is) balloon-mad. Balloonical a., connected with balloons, aeronautical. Balloonicism, a technical phrase in ballooning.
1864. Daily Tel., 19 Feb., 5/6. We live in an age of balloonacy.
1882. West. Daily Press, 27 March, 3/1. A sharp epidemic of balloonacy.
1865. Daily Tel., 22 Nov., 5/3. That Nadar, the balloonatic, has sold his balloon.
1882. Moonshine, V. 163. Another balloonatic attempt to cross the Channel.
1784. in Athenæum (1865), No. 1968. 78/3. ‘Balloonation,’ as it was called.
1851. Househ. Wds., 25 Oct., 103. The four hundred and eighty-ninth year of his balloonical age; having made that number of ascents.
1838. Lett., in H. Turner, Astra C., 399. How could I have avoided the perpetration of a few balloonicisms?
