Other forms: ballads
A ballad is a song that tells a story in simple verses. An old ballad, sing a ballad, a murder ballad.
The traditional ones were carried by memory for centuries and vary from singer to singer, which is why the same story exists in dozens of versions. In pop music a ballad just means a slow song. The word first meant a dance song, from the Latin for to dance.
1nounballadA song that tells a story in simple verses.
“The old ballad tells the story of a sailor who never came home.”
ballad is a song.
Old Occitan ballada means a dance song, from Latin ballare, to dance. Ball, the dance, is the same root.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʷelH-
Latin
ballare
Old Occitan
ballada — poem for a dance
French
ballade
English, today
ballad
From French ballade, from Old Occitan ballada (“poem for a dance”), from Latin ballare. a doublet of balada and ballade.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA