{"id":24082,"date":"2025-06-12T13:43:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T13:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24082"},"modified":"2025-06-12T13:43:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T13:43:06","slug":"stages-balconies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24082","title":{"rendered":"Stages &#038; Balconies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What links the Italian word <strong>palco<\/strong> (stage), with words like <strong>balcony<\/strong>, <strong>plank<\/strong> and <strong>block<\/strong>? Let&#8217;s find out.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/omniglot\/54459501682\/in\/photolist-R2b4Mz-2qYpbnh-2qYpbqd-2qYpbvy-2qYpbvJ-2qYpcL9-2qYuPAm-2qYuPBD\" title=\"The Warning at the O2 Academy Brixton\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54459501682_20b92281a4_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"The Warning at the O2 Academy Brixton\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Palco<\/strong> [\u02c8pal.ko] means platform, stand, layer, (theatre) box, stage, antler in Italian. Related words include <strong>palchetto<\/strong> (shelf, sidebar, upper tier box), <strong>palchettista<\/strong> (boxholder &#8211; ticket holder for the gallery or an upper tier box [in a theatre]), <strong>palcoscenico<\/strong> (stage), <strong>sottopalco<\/strong> (understage (area), backstage), and <strong>spalcare<\/strong> (to dismantle scaffolding, to prune or lop [trees]) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/palco#Italian\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>It comes from Lombardic <em>palk<\/em> (stand, stage), from Old High German <em>balko<\/em> (beam), from Proto-West Germanic <em>*balk\u014d<\/em> (beam, balk), from Proto-Germanic <em>*balk\u00f4<\/em> (beam, balk), possibly from Proto-Indo-European <em>*b\u02b0el\u01f5-<\/em> (beam, plank), or from PIE <em>*b\u02b0el\u01f5\u02b0-<\/em> (to swell) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic\/balk%C3%B4\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The English word <strong>balcony<\/strong> comes from the same roots, via Italian <strong>balcone<\/strong> (balcony, floor-length window), Old Italian <em>balcone<\/em> (scaffold), Lombardic <em>*balk(o)<\/em> (beam), Proto-Germanic <em>*balk\u00f4<\/em> (beam, balk), etc [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/balcony#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><strong>Plank<\/strong> also shares the same roots, but arrived via Middle English <em>plank(e)<\/em> (plank, counter, tablet, prop), Old French <em>planke<\/em> (plank, board), Late Latin <em>planca<\/em> (slat, plank), from Latin <em>palanca<\/em> (slat, plank, stake), from <em>phalanga<\/em> (wooden roller, carrying pole), from Ancient Greek <em>\u03c6\u1fb0\u0301\u03bb\u1fb0\u03b3\u03b3\u1fb0<\/em> (ph\u1eafl\u0103ng\u0103 &#8211; phalanx, battle order), from <em>\u03c6\u03ac\u03bb\u03b1\u03b3\u03be<\/em> (ph\u00e1lanx &#8211; line of battle, phalanx, main body, trunk, log, beam), from PIE <em>*b\u02b0el\u01f5-<\/em> (beam, plank) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/plank#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><strong>Block<\/strong> comes to us from Middle English <em>blok<\/em> (log, stump), from Old French <strong>bloc<\/strong> (log, block), from Middle Dutch <em>blok<\/em> (treetrunk), from Old Dutch <em>*blok<\/em> (log), from Proto-West Germanic <em>*blokk<\/em> (block, log), from Proto-Germanic <em>*blukk\u0105<\/em> (block, log, beam), from PIE <em>*b\u02b0el\u01f5-<\/em> (beam, plank) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/block#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Other words from the same roots include <strong>balk<\/strong>, <strong>bulk<\/strong>, <strong>fulcrum<\/strong> and  <strong>phalanx<\/strong> in English, <strong>balk<\/strong> (beam, solid support) in Dutch, <strong>Balken<\/strong> (beam, bar) in German, <strong>balc\u00e3o<\/strong> (counter, balcony) in Portuguese, and <strong>folcire<\/strong> (to support, sustain, guide, direct), <strong>fulcro<\/strong> (fulcrum, pivot,crux, core, thrust) and <strong>falca<\/strong> (gunwhale) in Italian [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic\/balk%C3%B4\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Blog horizontal --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1685480124\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What links the Italian word palco (stage), with words like balcony, plank and block? Let&#8217;s find out. Palco [\u02c8pal.ko] means platform, stand, layer, (theatre) box, stage, antler in Italian. Related words include palchetto (shelf, sidebar, upper tier box), palchettista (boxholder &#8211; ticket holder for the gallery or an upper tier box [in a theatre]), palcoscenico [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,104,107,116,128,10,302,15,428,182,26,34,178,429,41,44,45,202,78],"tags":[431,164,158,309,138,281,430,432,163],"class_list":["post-24082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dutch","category-english","category-etymology","category-german","category-italian","category-language","category-late-latin","category-latin","category-lombardic","category-middle-dutch-dietsc-duutsch","category-middle-english","category-old-french","category-old-high-german","category-old-italian","category-portuguese","category-proto-germanic","category-proto-indo-european","category-proto-west-germanic","category-words-and-phrases","tag-balcony","tag-english","tag-etymology","tag-italian","tag-language","tag-omniglot","tag-palco","tag-stage","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24083,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24082\/revisions\/24083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}