Etymology

Borrowing from Danish ballon, from French ballon, from Middle French ballon from Northern Italian bal(l)one (compare Italian pallone ‎(“large ball”)) from balla ‎(“ball”), from Lombardic balla, palla ‎(“ball”) from Proto-Germanic *ballô ‎(“ball”), from Proto-Indo-European *bholn- ‎(“bubble”), from *bhel- ‎(“to blow, swell, inflate”).