baller

baller

See also: Baller

English

Alternative forms

• balla (all senses except "person who divides molten metal")

Etymology

ball +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɔːlə(ɹ)/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːlə(ɹ)

Noun

baller (plural ballers)

1. A person employed to divide molten metal into separate balls before it is hammered out.
2. (slang) One who plays basketball; a basketballer.
   • 2009 July 17, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Obama Tells Fellow Blacks: ‘No Excuses’ for Any Failure”, in New York Times‎:

     I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers.

3. (African-American Vernacular, slang) One who has swag and lives an extravagant lifestyle.

   Did you see that car? He’s such a baller.

   • 1997, “It's All About the Benjamins”, in No Way Out, performed by Puff Daddy ft. Lil' Kim, the Lox and the Notorious B.I.G.:

     Now… what y'all wanna do? / Wanna be ballers? Shot-callers? Brawlers?

4. (vulgar) A person having sexual intercourse

Adjective

baller (comparative more baller, superlative most baller)

1. (African-American Vernacular, slang) Very cool, especially due to extravagance.
   • 2004, “Black Stacey”, in Saul Williams, performed by Saul Williams:

     All you baller playa's got some insecurities too / That you could cover up, bling it up, cash in and cha-ching it up

   • 2014, Kele Moon, The Viper, →ISBN:

     (Being an OG is not as baller as you'd think.)

   • 2015 December 11, Viputheshwar Sitaraman, “Q&A: Mahbod Moghadam — Cofounder, Everipedia”, in HuffPost‎:

     The most baller Los Angeles investor, Paige Craig, doesn’t have a Wikipedia page, but you can find out everything about him on his Everipedia page. Are you going to be pitching him?

   • 2016, Andy Cohen, Superficial: More Adventures from the Andy Cohen Diaries, →ISBN:

     Had dinner with the Arkins at Giuliana's restaurant, RPM, which is like a nightclub. They put a security guard in front of our booth, which felt very baller.

Related terms

• ball
• ballin'

 

See also

• (AAVE): playa, player; live large
• melon baller
• footballer

Anagrams

• Bellar

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French

Etymology

From Late Latin ballāre, from Ancient Greek βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”). Compare Spanish bailar, Italian ballare.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

baller

1. to dance with one's arms swinging
2. to swing or sway; to dangle

Conjugation

Conjugation of baller (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	baller
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	ballant /ba.lɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		ballé /ba.le/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	balle /bal/	balles /bal/	balle /bal/	ballons /ba.lɔ̃/	ballez /ba.le/	ballent /bal/
	imperfect	ballais /ba.lɛ/	ballais /ba.lɛ/	ballait /ba.lɛ/	ballions /ba.ljɔ̃/	balliez /ba.lje/	ballaient /ba.lɛ/
	past historic2	ballai /ba.le/	ballas /ba.la/	balla /ba.la/	ballâmes /ba.lam/	ballâtes /ba.lat/	ballèrent /ba.lɛʁ/
	future	ballerai /bal.ʁe/	balleras /bal.ʁa/	ballera /bal.ʁa/	ballerons /bal.ʁɔ̃/	ballerez /bal.ʁe/	balleront /bal.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	ballerais /bal.ʁɛ/	ballerais /bal.ʁɛ/	ballerait /bal.ʁɛ/	ballerions /ba.lə.ʁjɔ̃/	balleriez /ba.lə.ʁje/	balleraient /bal.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	balle /bal/	balles /bal/	balle /bal/	ballions /ba.ljɔ̃/	balliez /ba.lje/	ballent /bal/
	imperfect2	ballasse /ba.las/	ballasses /ba.las/	ballât /ba.la/	ballassions /ba.la.sjɔ̃/	ballassiez /ba.la.sje/	ballassent /ba.las/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	balle /bal/	—	ballons /ba.lɔ̃/	ballez /ba.le/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “baller”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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German

Verb

baller

1. inflection of ballern:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. singular imperative

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Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

baller m

1. indefinite plural of ball

Alternative forms

• ball

Noun

baller n

1. indefinite plural of ball (Etymology 2)