An obsolete or variant form of 'ballad'; a narrative poem or song.
An Old French spelling of 'balade' (ballad), showing the evolution from Old French through Middle English before standardizing to 'ballad.' Appears primarily in medieval manuscripts.
Medieval scribes had no standardized spelling, so 'ballat,' 'ballade,' and 'ballad' all meant the same thing—reading old poetry is like following a word's identity across different centuries before it settled on its current form.
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