Words--Beginning with Dance Words

When I wrote briefly on the carmagnole a few weeks ago, I didn't recall that it was a dance popular during the French Revolution. Then, I ran into other words for traditional dances, and figured I had to say a word about each. Of course, the best thing would be to learn these dances--maybe that is my physical activity in 2009 when I am learning all my languages... [by the way, here is another essay in which I speak of several Renaissance dances]. So, by learning a dance, you are twice blessed--you learn the steps and you learn a word. The farandole is a "Provencal dance, generally in 6/8 time; or the music which accompanies this dance, or any music written to its peculiar rhythm." Here are people dancing it. And here is a performance of Bizet's Farandole.

Well, to get to the redowa one has to travel across the Continent to Bohemia, where this dance originated. The OED, however, tells us that in Western Europe it developed into a dance in relatively quick triple time. It is in 3/4 or 3/8 time. A music dictionary says it it is "something like a Mazurka with the rhythm less strongly marked." The word redowa is derived ultimately from the Czech verb meaning to "wheel about" or "steer." Here is a trio playing a redowa polka. Polka? Well, the Century tells us that it has two forms: the mazurka/waltz and the polka. Phew. We can put that in its appropriate box now..

The quadrille originally referred to each of four groups of riders taking part in an equestrian display or tournament, distinguished from one another by costume or color, but later (in the 18th century) became associated with a square dance, typically performed by four couples, containing five sections or figures, each of which is a complete dance in itself. See for yourself here. Hardly the same kind of energy as in a farandole, I believe...

Then, there is the beguine, a term not introduced into English until 1935, signifying a kind of popular dance, originally associated with Martinique; also applied to a kind of syncopated dance rhythm. Cole Porter's 1935 song title was "Begin the Beguine." Here is Michael Danso singing this doleful, soulful song. When I first learned the word Beguine it was in the context of the study of medieval religion. Derived from the surname of Lambert Begue or "le Begue" (the "Stammerer"), a priest of the 12th century and founder of the order, a Beguine was a name for members of certain lay sisterhoods beginning in the Low Countries in the 12th century and devoting themselves to good works but without vows. The male counterparts were known as the Beghards or Beguins. So many things beg for clarificiation to our world today--our world so obsessed with the money markets and whether it will outlive its retirement accounts.

Finally, among the dances, I should mention the lavolta. Derived from two Italian words meaning "the" and "turn," the dance became known as the lavolta (one word) in English at the end of the 16th century. The first usage, a few years earlier, described its origin this way: "These..night-dansing witches brought out of Italie into France that danse which is called La volta." The OED merely defines it as "a lively dance for two persons, consisting a good deal in high and active bounds." Sounds like horses, doesn't it? We even have the verb lavolta in English. "Hey, hon, why don't you just lavolta over here?" Shakespeare used the word in a slightly more elegant fashion in Henry V (iii.5.33):

"They bid us to the English dancing-schools,
And teach lavoltas high, and swift corantos."

Oops. Got to mention coranto now, don't I? The OED says that it is the same a courante, a kind of French dance of the Middle Ages/Renaissance. As one can tell by the word, it is characterized by a "running or gliding step (as distinguished from leaping)." From 1586: "The Voltes, courantes, and vyolent daunses proceded from furie."

On To Other Things--Keeping it Visual

Though I love the words that send us into paroxysms of thought, I sometimes love more those that point to objects that can be touched, tasted, smelled. So, a planchet (pronounce the "t") is the "plain disk of metal of which a coin or medal is made; a blank." Here are the planchets, ready for stamping, like sheep being led to slaughter. They are unaware, I am sure, what fate awaits them as the grim visage of Lincoln or Roosevelt, for example, is about to be emblazoned on them. Another word for planchet is flan. Oops, I just realized that there are four or five meanings of flan in the OED, one of which, thankfully, is a coin blank. But I think I just might have to pause for a second on some "fla's" for the next essay.

But before I do that, I should finish with a few other "visual" words. A paiche is a pirarucu (Arapaima gigas), a fish native to Peru. Here is a picture of this lattice-like gray fish, one of the larger freshwater fish in the world. Him. Come to think of it, its skin looks like "fishnet stockings" that are worn on creatures much more attractive than the paiche. The word was first used in English in 1836: "There are five kinds of fish caught in the river which grow to a large size: they are the Paiche, the Gami-tana, the Paeon, the Sungaro, and the Torres." I wonder if the others have "kept" their names...

Then, if food is to your taste, we have bobotie, a South African dish of curried minced meat with a variety of ingredients. Which ingredients? Well, from a 1950 literary source we have: "Mrs. Dykman made her bobotie from minced meat...bread, butter, onion, pounded almonds, lemon juice, eggs, curry powder and a bunch of orange leaves." Here is a pic of the mix, right under the biltong. Ah, if you get too distracted with the just-linked page, you will have pictures and descriptions of other tasty-looking Southern African foods, including sosatie, vetkoek, waterblommetjies and others that I don't want to go into now. Treat youself to it...while you read the next essay.

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