Other forms: balconies
A balcony is the small open platform outside an upstairs window. Stand on the balcony, a balcony flat, from the balcony.
It is cantilevered out from the wall, which is why an old one needs checking — the fixing corrodes where it enters the building and the failure gives little warning. In a theatre the balcony is the upper tier. Note that the word came from Italian and goes back to a Germanic word for a beam.
1nounbalconyA small open platform outside an upstairs window.
“We had breakfast on the balcony, looking out over the sea.”
2nounupperThe upper tier of seats in a theatre.
“We had cheap seats in the balcony, high above the stage.”
balcony is a platform.
Italian balcone comes from a Lombardic word for a beam or scaffold, from a Germanic root. Balk and baulk are relatives.
Italian
balcone
English, today
balcony
Built from
Borrowed from Italian balcone. From Italian balcone (“balcony, floor-length window”), from roa-oit balcone (“scaffold”) from lng balk, balko (“beam”), from Proto-Germanic balkô (“beam”), from Proto-Indo-European bʰelǵ- (“beam, pile, prop”). Akin to Old High German balco, balcho (“beam”), Old English balca (“beam, ridge”). More at balk.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA