In colloquial, and often literary, curious words and expressions periodically sound, which eventually become winged. One of these common terms is "balabol". Each of us must have heard this word more than once in childhood. It has not gone out of use, it continues to be actively used in modern speech.
What is a "balabol"?
We are used to using this word automatically, without thinking about the semantic load. Often we use it to describe a very talkative person or children of the “age-old” age. And there is a considerable share of truth in this.
The fact is that the word "balabol" can be used for both positive and negative characteristics of the interlocutor. Often on the playground you can hear in the conversation of mothers: "My baby is such a balabol, he always talks about something." In this case, it is understood that the child is simply very talkative, there is no negative subtext.
However, in addition to the definition of “talk lover,” this word is also often applied to a person who not only speaks incessantly, but does not put almost any semantic load into his words, provides false information, makes empty promises. They also talk about such people as “chatterbox”, “chatterbox”, “trepach”, “idle talk”, use many other unflattering synonyms of the word “balabol”.
Origin history
There are several versions regarding the etymology of the word "balabol". This is the origin of the Tatar word for a rattle or a small bell with which dresses were decorated, and the version that the word got into the Russian language from the Latin language with the meaning of “stutter”.
By the way, in his "Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language" V.I. Dahl defines the words "balabol" and "balabolka" as a small pendant or trinket, for example, by the clock.