Bale Definition

Origin of Bale

• Precise derivation uncertain: perhaps from Old French bale, balle, from Medieval Latin balla (“ball, rounded package”), from Germanic; or perhaps from Dutch baal, itself borrowed from French.

  From Wiktionary

• Old English bǣl, from Proto-Germanic *bēlō, from Proto-Indo-European. Cognate with Old Norse bál (which may have been the direct source for the English word).

  From Wiktionary

• Old English bealo, from Proto-Germanic *balwô. Cognate with Gothic (balweins, “torture”), Old High German balo (“destruction”), Old Norse bǫl (“disaster”).

  From Wiktionary

• Middle English from Old French bhel-² in Indo-European roots

  From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

• Middle English from Old English bealu

  From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

• Alternative spelling of bail

  From Wiktionary