noun, masculine/ba.lan/plural: balanes
barnacle, especially the acorn barnacle; glans
“De bled en herbe vous faictez belle saulce verde [...] laquelle [...] dilate les vases spermaticques, abbrevie les cremasteres, expurge la vessie, enfle les genitoires, corrige le prepuce, incruste le balane, rectifie le membre.” — Of corn in the blade you may make good green sauce … which … dilates the spermatic vessels, shortens the cremasters, purgeth the bladder, puffeth up the genitories, correcteth the prepuce, hardens the nut, and rectifies the member.
Synonyms: gland
Borrowed from Latin balanus, from Ancient Greek βάλανος (bálanos, “acorn”). Cognate with Catalan bàlan, Italian balano, Portuguese bálano, Spanish bálano.