balayage

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French balayage.

Noun

balayage (countable and uncountable, plural balayages)

1. (cosmetics) A hair colouring technique in which colour is applied by hand.
   • 2025 November 6, Ellie Muir, “In All's Fair, the girlboss archetype has never been more embarrassing”, in The Independent‎^[1], archived from the original on 16 February 2026:

     Born in the mid-2010s, the concept of the girlboss promised a utopia where women could bulldoze into workplaces, pull up a seat at male-dominated tables and become a celebrated CEO on the Forbes 30 Under 30 List by the ripe age of 23 (and do it all, of course, wearing a fuchsia blazer and a balayage hairdo).

2. (mathematics) A method for reconstructing a harmonic function.

Derived terms

• balayaged

Translations

cosmetics

• Polish: balejaż (pl) m
• Swedish: balayage

Further reading

• balayage (mathematics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

From balayer +‎ -age.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ba.lɛ.jaʒ/ ~ /ba.le.jaʒ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Saint-Étienne)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Noun

balayage m (plural balayages)

1. sweeping, sweep
2. (radar) scanning, scan

Descendants

• → English: balayage
• → German: Balayage
• → Polish: balejaż, balayage

Further reading

• “balayage”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Polish

Etymology

Etymology tree

French balai

Proto-Italic *-āzi

▲

Latin -ereinflu.

Latin -āre

Old French -ier

Middle French -er

French -er

French balayer

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-tós

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos

Proto-Italic *-ātos

Latin -ātus

Proto-Indo-European *-kos

Proto-Indo-European *-ikos

Proto-Italic *-ikos

Latin -icus

Latin -āticus

Latin -āticum

Old French -age

Middle French -age

French -age

French balayageubor.

Polish balayage

Unadapted borrowing from French balayage.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /baˈlɛ.jaʂ/
• Rhymes: -ɛjaʂ
• Syllabification: ba‧la‧yage

Noun

balayage m inan

1. (cosmetics) alternative spelling of balejaż

Declension

Declension of balayage

	singular	plural
nominative	balayage	balayage'e
genitive	balayage'u	balayage'y
dative	balayage'owi	balayage'om
accusative	balayage	balayage'e
instrumental	balayage'em	balayage'ami
locative	balayage'u	balayage'ach
vocative	balayage'u	balayage'e

Further reading

• “balayage”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[2] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “balayage”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[3] (in Polish)