Balkanadj.n.
/ˈbɔːlk(ə)n/, /ˈbɒlk(ə)n/, U.S. /ˈbɔlkən/, /ˈbɑlkən/ A. adj.
1. Designating the Balkans, a range of mountains in modern Bulgaria (see sense B. 1); of or relating to this mountain range.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > high land > mountain > [adjective] > range > spec
Alpine?a1475
Pyrene?a1475
Riphaean1555
Pyrenean?1556
Pyrenee1590
hercynian1598
Alpic1611
Appalachian1672
Carpathian1673
Rhipaean1703
Alleghenian1740
Altaic1762
Altaian1780
Balkan1785
Uralian1801
Lepontine1802
Altai1824
Dinaric1833
Andean1845
Alpigene1847
Lepontian1857
Uralic1861
Himalayan1866
Cordilleran1891
Andine1900
Armorican1906
Variscan1906
1785 J. Capper Observ. Passage to India (ed. 3) 80 The view extends over this plain or rather beautiful lawn, which is pleasingly interspersed with clumps of trees, to the foot of the Balkan mountain.
1828 Derby Mercury 25 June Parks of artillery were on the road to the Balkan passes.
1854 Jrnl. Royal Geogr. Soc. 24 53 The plateau of the principal Balkan chain.
1876 W. Forsyth Slavonic Prov. v. 131 Bulgaria..is separated from Roumelia on the south by the lofty range of the Balkan Mountains.
1926 Econ. Geogr. 2 26/1 Corn..dominates the agriculture of the plain, however, and of the Balkan foothills bordering it on the south.
1986 B. H. Isaac Greek Settlements in Thrace iii. 142 Most of the Greek towns on the Thracian south-coast were protected from the northerly winds of Rumania and Hungary by the barrier of the Balkan ridge.
2011 R. Daskalov Debating Past i. 8 A small Bulgarian state was set up with Russian help north of the Balkan range.
2.
a. Of or relating to the Balkans, a region of south-eastern Europe (see sense B. 2); of or relating to the people of this area, or their customs.Earliest in Balkan peninsula n. at Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > named regions of earth > Europe > countries of Eastern Europe > [adjective] > Balkan
Balkan1855
Balkanic1880
Balkanoid1931
1855 Fraser's Mag. Nov. 576/2 The government of Constantinople was declared to be only ‘encamped’ in Europe, and to possess no right of dominion over the Balkan peninsula.
1876 Times 24 Oct. 9/2 Let Russia abandon all interest in the Balkan Question.
1886 J. G. C. Minchin Growth of Freedom in Balkan Penins. v. 92 The Russians dismembered the Ottoman Empire, while she succeeded in keeping the Balkan States weak and divided.
1912 Economist 12 Oct. 691/1 When it was considered that a general Balkan conflict was unavoidable, there were some pretty considerable falls in the stocks of the various Balkan States.
1914 Ann. Brit. School Athens 1912–13 19 254 A camel is a popular figure at Carnival in Athens and other South Balkan towns.
1915 A. D. Innes Hohenzollerns vi. 88 In dealing with the Balkan problem, the Powers ought not to regard themselves as two hostile groups.
1942 E. Waugh Put out More Flags ii. 91 The floor was covered..by bright Balkan rugs.
1967 Life 6 Oct. 84/3 One after another the Balkan peoples rose up against the Turks and won their freedom: the Greeks in 1829, the Serbians in 1830, the Romanians in 1856, the Bulgarians in 1878.
1993 World Today 49 43/1 In the last few months the future of Kosovo..has moved nearer centre stage in the Balkan crisis.
2011 Guardian (Nexis) 11 Oct. 45 Ramiz Alia..became leader of the tiny, impoverished Balkan state..following the death in 1985 of the dictator Enver Hoxha.
b. Resembling (that of) the Balkans; typical or characteristic of the Balkans or of Balkan society; esp. (with negative connotations) characterized by hostile relations between numerous neighbouring states or ethnic groups and frequent episodes of political and social unrest.
ΚΠ
1917 Geogr. Rev. Sept. 232 The shifting of Near Eastern problems a few points to the east after the war may convert Asia Minor into a storm-center of the Balkan type.
1962 Listener 25 Jan. 157/1 There are all the makings of a ‘Balkan situation’ in West Africa.
1991 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 16 Jan. 3 c In Israel, for instance, a Balkan mingling of peoples means the situation on the ground could be worse than any in the skies.
2010 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 24 Sept. a2 [Greece] teeters awkwardly between European modernity and a Balkan mindset.
3. Surgery. Designating an apparatus consisting of a beam or pole, or framework of these, to which pulleys and weights are attached to suspend a fractured limb. Esp. in Balkan beam, Balkan frame, Balkan splint.Originally developed by Dr. Vatroslav Florschütz (1879–1967) in Osijek (Croatia) around 1911.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > medical appliances or equipment > surgical supports > [noun] > cradle for injured limb
solen1693
cradle1705
Balkan frame1916
the world > health and disease > healing > medical appliances or equipment > surgical supports > [noun] > splint
spelkc1000
splintc1400
shindle1598
splinter1598
junk1617
fish1666
starch bandage1838
starch splint1843
pistol-splint1860
Balkan splint1916
gutter-splint1919
1914 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 5 Dec. 988/2 The suspension appliances chiefly in use are of two types. One bears a general resemblance to a Hodgen's splint, and is known as a ‘Balkan’.]
1916 Med. Rec. 19 Aug. 320/1 The Balkan splint, for leg wounds requiring extension and suspension.
1936 J. Dos Passos Big Money 309 Charley was in the hospital three months with his leg in a Balkan frame.
1949 M. Dickens Flowers on Grass (1962) x. 215 Sister Ferguson liked to see her fractured femurs all together on one side of the ward, with their Balkan beams exactly parallel.
1990 Burns 16 382/2 The ankle joint was immobilized using a subtalar pin and after dressings the leg was elevated using an os calcis Steinmann pin and Balkan beam system.
2011 P. B. Lynn Taylor's Handbk. Clin. Nursing Skills 52 The use of a specialty bed, or bed equipment, such as Balkan frame or foot cradle, should be documented.
B. n.
1. In plural. With the. (A name for) a range of mountains extending across modern Bulgaria from the eastern border of Serbia in the west to the Black Sea in the east, and forming the watershed between the Danube and Maritsa Rivers.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > high land > mountain > [noun] > range > other spec.
Mountains of the Moon1597
Carnic Alps1601
the Ghats1603
Pyreneans1768
Rocky Mountains1798
Balkans1802
Carnian Alps1802
Rockies1827
Carpathiana1832
Appalachians1834
Adirondack1838
keel1857
1802 Trav. in Crimea vii. 245 On leaving this place, the Balkans appeared diminished to hillocks.
1821 Morning Chron. 23 July The Russians..have entered Galatz, and are advancing by forced marches towards the Balkans.
1854 Jrnl. Royal Geogr. Soc. 24 52 Bulgarians and Turks have divided amongst themselves the deeper and more inland valleys of the Balkans.
1903 F. V. Greene Campaign in Bulgaria 1877–8 8 There were no troops left to send over the Balkans.
1963 Biblical Archaeol. 26 95 The plain extends broad and flat toward the northwest and is closed in by the foothills of the Balkans.
2006 D. R. Stone Mil. Hist. Russia ix. 134 A small detachment liberated Sofia while the remainder turned east, unhinging Turkish defenses all along the southern slopes of the Balkans.
2. With the. (The name of) a region in south-eastern Europe, usually considered to include the countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and often also Greece and European Turkey. Now only in plural.The geographical area designated by this term is not fixed. The Balkans may be considered to include the whole of the peninsula bounded by the Adriatic, Ionian, Aegean, and Black Seas, including Greece and European Turkey (cf. Balkan peninsula n. at Compounds 2). Slovenia and, more rarely, Hungary may also be included, although the rivers Sava and Danube are sometimes considered to mark the northern boundary of the region. This area corresponds, broadly speaking, to the part of Europe that was included in the Ottoman Empire until the 19th cent., and which, prior to the Congress of Berlin in 1878 was most commonly referred to in English as European Turkey. In recent use, however, Greece and Turkey are less likely to be considered part of the Balkans. The term is now primarily associated with the region north of Greece, and particularly with Albania and those countries which made up Yugoslavia.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > named regions of earth > Europe > countries of Eastern Europe > [noun] > condition of being Balkan
Balkan1871
1871 Examiner 16 Sept. 918/1 It would be a wise policy to prepare the way by extending the principle of autonomy with the greatest possible quickness to all the States of the Balkan and the Danube.
1885 Times 23 Apr. 5/2 It was she [sc. Russia] who took from you [sc. the Ottoman Empire] almost the whole of the Balkans.
1906 Spectator 16 June 934/2 Hungary would seek dependent allies among the States of the Balkan.
1912 Financial Times 2 Oct. 6/3 The Stock Exchange yesterday was overshadowed by the development of the crisis in the Balkans.
1915 N. Forbes et al. (title) The Balkans: a history of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Roumania, Turkey.
1946 Artibus Asiae 9 73 There is much in the folk art of the Balkans which may help us to get a clearer understanding of the carpet designs of Western Asia.
1974 Jrnl. Field Arch. 1 27 [Macedonia's] inherent connections are with the continental land mass of the Balkans rather than with the maritime peninsula of Greece.
1994 T. Stoianovich Balkan Worlds 37 The average yearly temperature has increased everywhere in the Balkans except in peninsular Greece by half a degree centigrade every fifty years.
1995 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 24 Nov. a15 The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is gearing up to help several million people uprooted by ethnic fighting in the Balkans.
2011 Observer (Nexis) 20 Nov. 57 Italy, Greece and the Balkans will be dry with plenty of sunshine.
Phrases
ΚΠ
1846 C. T. Blumhardt Christian Missions II. iv. 127 To this [i.e. Turkey in Europe] belongs the whole peninsula of the Balkan, except Greece.
1863 V. Yovanovitch Serbian Nation & Eastern Question 32 If at the time of the Crimean war of 1854 the Serbs had arisen, the whole peninsula of the Balkan would have rejected the yoke of Turkey.
1877 W. E. Gladstone Lessons in Massacre 53 It had become necessary to mass them [sc. troops] in the Peninsula of the Balkans.
1885 Galveston (Texas) Daily News 27 Nov. 1/6 It is known that the hog disease is spreading upon the peninsula of the Balkan and in Italy.
1897 Hampshire Advertiser 23 Jan. 7/3 A chain of Slav States..would be formed across the peninsula of the Balkans.
Compounds
C1. Designating a type of tobacco blend typically containing a high proportion of Turkish and Latakia tobaccos, or a cigarette made from this, as Balkan blend, Balkan cigarette, Balkan mixture, Balkan Sobranie (cf. Sobranie n.).Balkan Sobranie is a proprietary name in the U.K. and U.S.
ΚΠ
1899 Tobacco 1 Mar. p. lxvi/2 Register of specialities…cigarettes... Balkan Sobranie—Robt. Lewis, 20, St. James St., Lon., S.W.
1921 Times 20 Apr. 1/3 Lost, Monday afternoon, a leather cigarette case with gold band, containing Balkan cigarettes.
1923 Trade Marks Jrnl. 19 Dec. 2707 The Balkan Sobranie... Cigarettes.
1963 Winnipeg Free Press 11 Sept. iv. 55/3 Mr. Weed took a long pull on his cigarette, the special Balkan blend with the three gold rings.
1966 ‘A. York’ Eliminator iii. 49 She put the pistol away in her bedside drawer and lit a Balkan Sobranie.
1991 Financial Times 20 Dec. 14/6 She favoured the firm's hand-made gold-tipped Alexandra Balkan cigarettes.
2006 Sunday Times (Nexis) 12 Nov. (Features section) 1 I'd buy the Three Gold Rings, James Bond's cigarette, the Balkan mixture of tobacco.
C2.
Balkan League n. (also with lower-case initial in second element) an alliance involving states of the Balkans; esp. the alliance of Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia, which fought the First Balkan War (1912–13) against the Ottoman Empire.
ΚΠ
1879 Standard 27 Oct. 5/4 The postponement of the Balkan league to next spring is in keeping with what is going on elsewhere.
1912 Financial Times 10 Oct. 7/3 At Constantinople and in the capitals of the Balkan League a strict censorship is being exercised on messages and but little news has been received..of the progress of hostilities between Turkey and Montenegro.
1923 W. Miller Balkans (ed. 3) 487 The foolish attempt of the ‘Young’ Turks to Ottomanise the various races of the Empire, achieved what had been the dream of well-wishers of the Balkan nations,..—a Balkan League.
2003 R. C. Hall in R. F. Hamilton & H. H. Herwig Origins of World War I iii. 98 Russia had a different purpose in mind for this Balkan League. While the Bulgarians and Serbs saw the alliance as a weapon directed against the Ottoman Empire, the Russians saw it was a means to strengthen their position in the Balkans.
Balkan peninsula n. (also with capital initial in the second element) a large peninsula in south-eastern Europe bounded by the Adriatic and Ionian Seas on the west, by the Aegean and Mediterranean seas on the south and south-east, and by the Black Sea on the east.
ΚΠ
1855Balkan peninsula [see sense A. 2a].
?1877 Ethnol. Map European Turkey & Greece 5 The richest valleys of the Balkan peninsula.
1972 W. B. Lockwood Panorama Indo-European Lang. 172 Thracian was spoken throughout the eastern half of the Balkan Peninsula and stretched northwards into the Central European Plain.
2012 Observer (Nexis) 27 May 51 The Balkan Peninsula will have heavy and prolonged showers or thunderstorms.
Balkan war n. a military conflict taking place in or involving the states of the Balkans; spec. (frequently with capital initials) either of two wars in the period 1912–13, responsible for depriving the Ottoman Empire of most of its remaining European territory, and significantly increasing tensions in the Balkans in the period leading up to the First World War (1914–18); (in plural) these two wars collectively.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > war > types of war > [noun] > other specific war
Punic War1556
Vandal war1613
American Civil War1775
Seven Years War1775
Revolutionary Wara1784
Peninsular war1811
Great War1815
Mormon war1833
opium war1841
the Thirty Years' War1841
the Thirty Years' War1842
Mexican War1846
Napoleonic War1850
Crimean War1854
Hundred Years War1874
Balkan war1881
Boer War1883
Winter War1939
Six Day War1967
Yom Kippur War1973
Gulf War1981
Falklands conflict1982
1881 Times 19 Apr. 5/4 The Russian disasters in the Balkan war of 1828.
1912 Economist 7 Dec. 1166/1 The lessons of the Tripoli and Balkan Wars are already being turned over.
1929 N. Amer. Rev. June 755/1 The constituting of Albania as a separate State after the Balkan Wars.
1996 Washington Post (Nexis) 14 Nov. a23 Mladic rose to prominence during the Balkan war as a commander of Serb forces..during the Serbs' 1991 uprising against the Croatian independence movement.
2009 A. Axelrod Little-known Wars xv. 219 The First and Second Balkan Wars..destroyed the delicate balance of power among the nations of Europe and Asia Minor.
Derivatives
ˈBalkanoid adj. rare Balkan; Balkan-like.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > named regions of earth > Europe > countries of Eastern Europe > [adjective] > Balkan
Balkan1855
Balkanic1880
Balkanoid1931
1931 H. E. Wortham Delightful Profession xviii. 363 Ten years later..the Empire, which the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was intended to consolidate, fell to pieces, and Balkanoid growths now cover much of the broad lands.
2011 Cape Times (Nexis) 17 Jan. (Style section) 9 Combining elements of ragga, hip hop, Balkanoid horns, Arab and Bulgarian guest singers, Greek guitars and more, Balkan Beat Box hooks around its two founders.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2013; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
<
adj.n.1785