Etymograph

English

slimeball

Slimeball comes from Middle English bal ‘a ball’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- ‘to sound’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰel-1‘to sound’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*balluz1‘round object, ball’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150*beall1‘ball’reconstructed
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bal1‘a ball’
  5. English1500–presentBall1
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1957slimeball1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English slimeball
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1957, John T. Lucker, Adult Tapeworms: “The eggs [of a lancet fluke (Dicrocoelium dendriticum)] that…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰel-Wiktionary, English slimeball‘to sound’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*balluzWiktionary, English slimeball‘round object, ball’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150*beallWiktionary, English slimeball‘ball’reconstructed
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500balWiktionary, English slimeball‘a ball’
  5. English1500–presentBallWiktionary, English slimeball
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1957slimeballWiktionary, English slimeball. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1957, John T. Lucker, Adult Tapeworms: “The eggs [of a lancet fluke (Dicrocoelium dendriticum)] that…”

The story

Sense 1 (‘a round lump made up of or coated with slime or a slime-like substance’) is a calque of German Schleimkugel, from Schleim (‘mucus, slime’) + Kugel (‘ball’), while sense 1.1 (‘a mucus-coated lump containing the cercariae of a liver fluke’) may be a calque of German Schleimball (from Schleim (‘slime’) + Ball (‘ball’)).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- ‘to sound’

bowl, bell, bold, bull, flame, boil, blaze, blush, blur, bleach, bald, blizzard, bolster, budge, bale, sabha, blemish, bola, phlegm, bolero, phlox, blain, blithe, phallus, bleat, 71 more

through Proto-Germanic *balluz ‘round object, ball’

balloon, 3 more

through Old English *beall ‘ball’

bollocks, balk, 2 more

through English Ball

boba

Today it means

noun A round lump made up of or coated with slime or a slime-like substance such as mucus.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “slimeball”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- / slimeball

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