Meaning

noun a large bundle bound for storage or transport

noun a city in northwestern Switzerland

verb make into a bale

originFrom Middle English bale (“pyre, funeral pyre”), from Old English bǣl (“pyre, funeral pyre”), from Proto-Germanic *bēlą (“pyre”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shine; gleam; sparkle”). Cognate with Old Norse bál (which may have been the direct source for the English word).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0