| 释义 |
minuet, n.|mɪnjuːˈɛt|
Also 7 minnuet, minuett, 7–8 minouet, menuet, 8 minuit; and see minaway, minuetto.
[ad. F. menuet, subst. use of menuet adj., small, fine, delicate, dim. of menu small: see menu, minute a. The form of the Eng. word was perh. influenced by the It. minuetto, which is adapted from Fr., as are Sp., Pg. minuete, Sp. minue.
The pronunciation |ˈmɪnjuːɪt or ˈmɪnjuːɛt|, given in Dictionaries, is now seldom heard.]
1. A slow, stately dance, in triple measure, for two dancers; derived from France in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and fashionable throughout the eighteenth.
1673Dryden Marr. à la Mode ii. i, And what new Minouets have you brought over with you! their Minouets are to a miracle. 1676G. Etherege Man of Mode iv. i, I am fit for Nothing but low dancing now, a Corant, a Boreè, Or a Minnuét. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Menuet, or Minuet, a sort of French Dance, or the Tune belonging to it. 1762Goldsm. Nash 34 Each ball was to open with a minuet, danced by two persons of the highest distinction present. 1778E. Montagu in Doran Lady Last Cent. ix. (1873) 231 To excel in dancing a minouet. 1810Sir A. Boswell Edinb. Poet. Wks. (1871) 52 To walk a minuet with becoming grace. 1864Tennyson Aylmer's F. 207 A stiff brocade in which..she, Once with this kinsman,..Stept thro' the stately minuet of those days.
2. The music used to accompany this dance. Hence, a piece of music in the same rhythm and style, consisting of two sections (the second of which is often called a trio); frequently forming one of the movements of the Suite, and, later, of compositions in Sonata-form.
1686Lond. Gaz. No. 2119/4 There are designed to be published several Overtures or Sonatta's, containing Variety of Humors, as Grave Aires, Minuetts, Borees, &c. 1717Gay Epist. Pulteney 144 He..Hums a soft minuet. 1762Jefferson Writ. (1892) I. 341 They carried away..half a dozen new minuets I had just got. 1762–71H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) IV. 75 As a dancing-master would, if he expected Orpheus should return to play a minuet to them.
3. attrib. and Comb., as minuet dance, minuet-dancer, minuet dancing, minuet form, minuet-step, minuet-time, minuet-tune.
1831Carlyle Misc. (1857) II. 268 The graceful *minuet dance of Fancy.
1712Steele Spect. No. 308 ⁋6 John Trot..has the Assurance to set up for a *Minuit-Dancer.
1840Dickens Barn. Rudge iv, Sim..sprang from his seat, and in two extraordinary steps, something between skating and *minuet dancing, bounded to a washing place.
1875Ouseley Mus. Form vii. 43 The original *minuet form always consisted of a piece in triple time and of moderate speed.
1711Steele Spect. No. 148 ⁋1 The Gentleman who..practised *minuet-steps to his own Humming. 1728Fielding Love in Sev. Masques ii. i, The airy Sir Plume, who always walks in the minuet-step.
1851Thackeray Eng. Hum. iv. (1858) 188 A *minuet-tune played on a bird-organ.
Hence minuet v., to dance a minuet; also fig.; minueting vbl. n. Also minuˈetic, minuetish adjs.
1742Richardson Pamela IV. 114 A Glut of minuitish Airs. a1847Eliza Cook Dancing Song v, See the sweet rose Bend to the blue-bell, in light minueting! 1856Bagehot Lit. Stud. (1879) II. 34 You should do everything, said Lord Chesterfield, in minuet time. It was in that time that Gibbon wrote his history... You perceive the minuetic action accompanying the words. 1881G. M. Hopkins Lett. to R. Bridges (1955) 125 The magic nib has..minuetted and gavotted into the syllables of your name. 1890Temple Bar Feb. 297 Twenty years ago people minuet-ed. 1972Newsweek 17 July 21/3 MacGregor might have to minuet with White House aides for a Presidential audience. |