'ballata' originates from Italian, specifically the word 'ballata', where the verb 'ballare' meant 'to dance'.

'ballata' changed from Late Latin/Vulgar Latin forms such as 'ballata' and from the verb 'ballare' (from Late Latin), ultimately tracing back to Greek verbal roots (e.g. Byzantine Greek related forms meaning 'to dance'), and was established in medieval Italian as the term for a dance-song.

Initially it meant 'a dancing-song' or simply 'a dance', but over time it became specialized as the name of a medieval poetic-musical form (the 'ballata' of the Italian Trecento).