Bailar, Spanish meaning “to dance”, is another one of these Spanish words that sounds random and is difficult until you realize its subtle common origin with a bunch of English words.
Bailar comes from the late Latin ballare, meaning the same, “to dance”, originally from the Greek ballizein, meaning, “to dance or jump around”. From this same root, we get a few English words including:
- Ballroom — Yes, the room where you go dancing!
- To Have a Ball — Yes, the “ball” in this phrase is the same “ball” as in bailar and ballroom!
- Ballad — The love song, unsurprisingly, comes from the same root as dancing: perhaps slow dancing!
- Ballistics — Directly from the Greek, we get the science of having balls shoot around!
There is no connection to the English “ball” in the sense of the round object you throw.
Have a ball remembering these!
