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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Word of the Day for August 26, 1999
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balloon [n. buh-LOON]
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Most balloons are bags that are full of gas. Big balloons filled
with hot air or helium can lift people into the sky, while others are
small enough to hold in the hand. There is also the speech balloon,
an outlined, drawn shape in which words appear to indicate what a
comic strip character is saying.
A ball and a balloon are both usually round, and both words came from
the same ancient root, Prehistoric German balluz (round object).
That word entered Old Norse as bollr, then moved into French as
ballon and Italian as ballone. In English, it took on the meaning of
"inflated object."
More "round" words from the same ancient root:
boulder: large, rounded stone
ballot: sheet of paper to register a vote; originally, a small ball
bowl: hemispherical vessel wider at the top
bale: large bundle; originally a rolled-up bundle
boll: seed capsule of cotton or flax
bole: tree trunk
Today's Cool Fact is about balloons made by flies:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/08/26.html
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