balasa

Tagalog

Etymology

Borrowed from (c. 16th-18th century) Early Modern Spanish barajar (“to shuffle”), with loss of final /r/ possibly through an inflection (see baraja), shift of stress to penultimate, change of intervocalic /r/ to /l/, and Spanish ⟨j⟩, then pronounced /ʃ/, became Tagalog /s/ (/baɾaˈʃaɾ/ → /baˈlasa/). Possibly also from Spanish baraja (“deck of cards”). Doublet of baraha, a later borrowing from Spanish baraja.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /baˈlasa/, [bɐˈla.sɐ]
• Hyphenation: ba‧la‧sa

Noun

balasa (Baybayin spelling ᜊᜎᜐ)

1. shuffle (act of shuffling cards)
2. reshuffle; reorganization
3. shift of gait of a running horse

Derived terms

• balasahin
• bumalasa
• ipambalasa
• mabalasa
• magbalasa

 

Further reading

• “balasa”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018