▪ Jeffery1938: »The verb balad‑ in the sense of ‘to dwell in a region’ is denominative, and Nöldeke recognized that balad in the sense of ‘a place where one dwellsʼ was a Semitic borrowing from the Lat palatium : Grk palátion. This has been accepted by Fraenkel, Fremdw, 28, and Vollers, ZDMG, li, 312, and may be traced back to the military occupation of N. Arabia.«▪ EALL (Gutas, “Greek Loanwords”): a loan from Grk palátion that goes back to Latin palatium.
▪ Shahîd (EALL, “Latin Loanwords”) also mentions Lat. palatium ‘town, inhabited area’, but adds that this etymology is uncertain.