in. THE EDITOR OF Tel "SPECTATOR:1
Sin,—If Dr. Steele (see Spec.fator, July 27th) has a copy of Diez's " Worterbuch der Romanischen Spracben" beside him, he will find on p. 39 the following interesting information (I translate for the benefit of your readers who do not know German) :—
" Balzare = to hop, to spring, to jump up; subst. balzo (Italian), bans (old French) = a jump, a spring. In Italian it also signifies a cliff or rock, and sometimes appears in the feminine form balsa. There is a strengthened form sbalzare = to hurl, to swing one- self up ; substantive, sbalzo. The home of the word is clearly Italy, where it is most widely spread (compare balsellare, balzel- loni); all the more probably is its derivation from the Greek f3aXXiCeiv = to hop, to spring, to dance."
The word balm occurs in the last line of the Inferno, Canto XI. :—
"E il balzo via II oltra si dismonta."
Carey translates this :—" And onward there a space is our steep passage down the rocky height." In this line the meaning is clearly that given by Diez as the secondary mean-
ing of balzo, but not "rampart." Can Dr. Steele refer me to a passage where "rampart" is the meaning ? In the second part of his dictionary (p. 355) Diez gives another word balsa, which he says means a hedge or border, and is derived from the Latin balteus a belt or girdle. This would follow quite regularly, like pozzo from puteum (ace. of puteus), prezzo from pretium, alsare from an altiare predicated by Diez, and quite likely to have existed, &c. The feminine form is more diffi- cult to explain, but may have been affected by the neuter plural of Wiens ; neuter plurals have in the course of ages been taken as feminine singulars, and produced feminine words in the Romance languages.—I am, Sir, &c., [We do not print that part of our correspondent's letter which deals with "shabby," as that word is disposed of by Professor Skeat.—En. Spectator.]
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