balconing

English

WOTD – 1 February 2016

Etymology

A hotel in Mallorca, where numerous cases made it to the media.

Borrowed from Spanish balconing, itself a pseudo-anglicism from Spanish balcón (“balcony”, noun) +‎ -ing (suffix).

This pseudo-anglicism was coined in Spain as a result of many drunk British tourists dying or seriously injuring themselves by attempting this stunt, thus featuring in many media headlines. See the Wikipedia article for more information.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbælkənɪŋ/, (or emulating Spanish) /bælˈkoʊnɪŋ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bal‧con‧ing

Noun

balconing (uncountable)

1. The act of jumping between the balconies of two hotel rooms; especially of tourists in Spain.
   • 2015 June 5, Hugh Morris, “Magaluf to fine tourists who get naked in the street: The Spanish resort is clamping down on anti-social behaviour to clean up its image”, in The Daily Telegraph‎^[1], archived from the original on 23 June 2015:

     Drunken revellers planning to over-indulge in Magaluf this summer face fines of up to €3,000 for urinating, being naked in the street or “balconing”, the craze of jumping from hotel balconies. New rules which come into force next week are part of a clampdown on the type of behaviour that has led to the Spanish resort being associated with debauchery tourism.

2. The act of jumping from a balcony towards a swimming pool.
   • 2013 September 2, “Man dies ‘balconing’ at Majorca hotel”, in Sky News‎^[2], archived from the original on 4 November 2014:

     A man in his 20s has died in a fall from his hotel room balcony in the resort of Magaluf, Majorca. The young man fell through the cracks of a balcony in the early hours of Monday while allegedly practising what is known as “balconing” – which involves jumping from balcony to balcony, or into a pool from a balcony.

   • 2020 January 17, Stephen Burgen, “Balearic islands pass bill targeting boozy Brits abroad”, in The Guardian‎^[3]:

     The legislation also seeks to outlaw “balconing”, the practice of jumping into a swimming pool from a hotel balcony that kills several people each year. In future, hotels will have to evict anyone practising balconing or encouraging others to do so.

Translations

jumping between the balconies of two hotel rooms

• Galician: balconismo m, balconing m
• Spanish: balconismo m, balconing (es) m

jumping from a balcony towards a swimming pool

• Galician: balconismo m, balconing m
• Spanish: balconismo m, balconing (es) m

Further reading

• balconing on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• blancoing

Galician

Etymology

From balcón +‎ -ing.

Noun

balconing m (uncountable)

1. balconing

   Synonym: balconismo

Spanish

Etymology

From balcón +‎ -ing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /balkoˈniŋ/ [bal.koˈniŋ]
• Rhymes: -iŋ

Noun

balconing m (uncountable)

1. (Spain) balconing [from 2010]

   Synonym: balconismo

   • 2011 August 21, Lucía Bohórquez, “El 'balconing' vuelve a matar en Baleares”, in El País‎^[4], Madrid, →ISSN:

     A pesar de las advertencias de las autoridades y los hoteleros, el balconing ha vuelto a las islas. Los turistas, borrachos tras una juerga, tratan de saltar desde el balcón de la habitación del hotel hasta la piscina, en ocasiones jaleados por amigos y compañeros que tratan de inmortalizar el recuerdo del salto en un vídeo que después cuelgan en redes sociales.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2016 August 3, Carlos Garfella, “El ‘balconing’ y otros excesos del turismo masivo en España”, in El País‎^[5], Madrid, →ISSN:

     Turistas entrando desnudos a comprar en supermercados, muertos por ‘balconing’, o fiestas de alto contenido sexual como la del “mamading” en Magaluf (Mallorca) son algunos de los efectos del turismo de borrachera y “low cost” que durante los últimos años han proliferado en las comunidades más turísticas de España.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• → English: balconing

Further reading

• “balconing”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28
• balconing on the Spanish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^es