Etymology

ballot

bal·lot
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Today it means: A small ball placed in a container to cast a vote; now, by extension, a piece of paper or card used for this purpose, or some other means used to signify a vote. Full definition →

Italian balota ← Middle French balote ← Proto-West Germanic *ballu
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*balluz“ball”
  2. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*ballu“ball”
  3. Middle French · derived frombalote
  4. Italian · borrowed frombalota
  5. English todayballot

Borrowed from Italian balota (obsolete), ballotta (“small ball, especially one used to register a vote”), from balla (“bale, bundle”) + -otta (suffix forming diminutive nouns); or from Middle French balote (obsolete), ballotte (“small ball used to register a vote”) (also compare Middle French balotiage, French ballottage (“second ballot, runoff”)); both ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *ballu (“ball”), from Proto-Germanic *balluz (“ball”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.