balrog

See also: Balrog

English

Etymology

From Sindarin, a fictional language created by J.R.R. Tolkien, meaning something akin to "mighty demon".

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbɔːl.ɹɒɡ/, /ˈbal.ɹɒɡ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbɔl.ɹɑɡ/, /ˈbɑl.ɹɑɡ/, /ˈbæl.ɹɑɡ/

Noun

balrog (plural balrogs)

1. (fantasy) A fiery demonic creature.
   • 1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring:

     The Balrog made no answer. The fire in it seemed to die, but the darkness grew. It stepped forward slowly on to the bridge, and suddenly it drew itself up to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall […]

   • 2004, post on newsgroup, alt.sex.bondage:

     What was released was a demon, a balrog of pure sexual energy which had been denied for too long.

   • 2004, post on newsgroup, rec.skiing.alpine:

     […] is just a big goofy Balrog as far as I'm concerned, he might make a "Green Dot" poster scared; the big dweeb.

   • 2020 July 25, Maureen Dowd, Elon Musk, “Elon Musk, Blasting Off in Domestic Bliss”, in New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 25 July 2020:

     [And now, a warp-drive round of Confirm or Deny.][...]
     Gandalf the Grey was cooler than Gandalf the White.
     Hmm, that’s a tough one. I think in some ways he was cooler, but he kind of needed to defeat the Balrog in order to become a better wizard, I guess, and play a bigger role in defeating Sauron. But he was definitely more chill as Gandalf the Grey and had a better sense of humor.

Translations

fiery demonic creature

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 炎魔 (yánmó)

• Finnish: balrog
• French: balrog m
• German: Balrog m
• Italian: balrog m
• Japanese: バルログ (barurogu)
• Norwegian: balrog
• Polish: balrog m
• Russian: ба́лрог m (bálrog)
• Serbo-Croatian: балрог m (balrog)
• Swedish: balrog c

Anagrams

• Barlog, Bolgar, Bolğar, brolga, globar

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

balrog m (definite singular balrogen, indefinite plural balroger, definite plural balrogene)

1. balrog