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Belly dance
Definitions
- 1 A form of dance originating in the Middle East and characterized by movements of the torso. countable, uncountable
- 2 a Middle Eastern dance in which the dancer makes sensuous movements of the hips and abdomen wordnet
- 1 To perform a belly dance.
- 2 perform a belly dance wordnet
Etymology
Calque of French danse du ventre, equivalent to belly + dance. First attested in English in 1889, in an article about that year's Exposition Universelle in Paris in the November 22 edition of the Yorkshire Factory Times: "A café in the Rue du Caire attracted 2,000 spectators daily to see the ‘belly dance’, and realised a total of 400,000 francs." Early sources also used the French term danse du ventre as-is.
Calque of French danse du ventre, equivalent to belly + dance. First attested in English in 1889, in an article about that year's Exposition Universelle in Paris in the November 22 edition of the Yorkshire Factory Times: "A café in the Rue du Caire attracted 2,000 spectators daily to see the ‘belly dance’, and realised a total of 400,000 francs." Early sources also used the French term danse du ventre as-is.
See also for "belly dance"
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