War, law & rule

ballot

Venetians voted by dropping little balls, ballotte, into urns; English took the word for secret voting in the 1500s. French made ballottage the run-off vote, and Russian took ballotirovatʹsya 'to stand for election'.

Weakest linkProbable

The road to English

From Italian to Middle French, French, Russian

From Italian to Spanish

From English to American English

1300Italian

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

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