Etymology Dictionary

BALCONY,  a platform outside a window.  (Ital.)   Milton has balcone's (sic) as a plural; Areopagitica, ed. Hales, p. 24.   'The penult is long with Sherburne (1618-1702), and with Jenyns (1704-87), and in Cowper's John Gilpin; Swift has it shrt; see Richardson;' Hales.—Ital. balcone, an outjutting corner of a house, also spelt balco (Florio).   Ital. palco or palcone, a stage, scaffold, also occurs.   β. Hence Diez well suggests a derivation from O.H.G. balcho, palcho, a scaffold, cognate with Eng. balk, a beam, rafter.   See Balk.   The term. -one is the usual Ital. augmentative; cf. balloon.   ¶ The word has a remarkable resemblance to Pers. bálákhána, an upper chamber, from Pers. bálá, upper, and khána, a house (Palmer, col. 68, 212); but the connection thus suggested is void of foundation, and the sense hardly suits.