country dancen.
/ˌkʌntrɪ ˈdɑːns/, /ˌkʌntrɪ ˈdans/, U.S. /ˈˌkəntri ˈdæns/ 1. † b. figurative. Obsolete.
a. A rural or traditional dance, esp. in England and Scotland; spec. one in which couples begin by standing face to face in long lines.Such dances were originally often performed in the open air. In England they were contrasted with French dances by the 17th cent.
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society > leisure > dancing > types of dance or dancing > country-dance or dancing > [noun]
country dance?1577
country dancing1655
contre-danse1803
society > leisure > the arts > music > type of music > dance music > [noun] > folk or country dance
country dance?1577
set1836
gypsy dance1839
contre-danse1880
folk-dance1909
?1577 Misogonus ii. iv. in R. W. Bond Early Plays from Ital. (1911) 213 Trifle not the tyme then say what shall we haue What countrye dauncis do you now here dayly frequent.
1650 A. Weldon Court & Char. King James 134 Because they could not learn the French Dances so soon as to be in gay Clothes, Country Dances must be in the garb of the Court.
a1657 G. Daniel Trinarchodia: Richard II ciii, in Poems (1878) III. 162 Peasants..can advance At best, noe higher then a Countrey Dance.
1711 R. Steele Spectator No. 2. ⁋1 Sir Roger de Coverley. His Great Grand-father was Inventor of that famous Country-Dance which is called after him.
1756 T. Amory Life John Buncle I. 283 We..had the hemp-dressers one night, which is, you know..the most difficult, and laborious of all the country dances.
1798 Musical Banquet 133 At ilka country dance or reel, Wi' her he wou'd be bobbing.
1841 C. Dickens Old Curiosity Shop i. viii. 124 Country-dances being low, were utterly proscribed.
1857 T. Hughes Tom Brown's School Days ii. viii. 385 A merry country dance was going on..and new couples joined in every minute, till there were a hundred of them going down the middle and up again.
1897 N.Y. Daily Tribune 25 Oct. 10/2 The cake-walk proper had its origin among the French negroes of Louisiana... There is little doubt that it is an offshoot of some of the old French country dances.
1909 C. Sharp Country Dance Bk. I. 10 We happen to possess in England, in the Morris and Country Dance, two folk-dances of unusual interest.
1944 Folk-lore 55 43 This is a famous picture showing a Sword dance, St. George and the Dragon, and a Country dance, all going on in the same village.
1972 G. Emmerson Social Hist. Sc. Dance 300 There are indications of a decline of the original enthusiasm for the Country Dance in Scotland.
2009 B. Forbes Make Merry in Step & Song 114 The country dance chosen for this auspicious moment is ‘Sellenger's Round’.
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the world > action or operation > behaviour > [noun] > (a) course of conduct or action
wayeOE
pathOE
waya1225
tracea1300
line13..
dancea1352
tenor1398
featc1420
faction1447
rink?a1500
footpath1535
trade1536
vein1549
tract1575
course1582
road1600
country dance1613
track1638
steeragea1641
rhumb1666
tack1675
conduct1706
walk1755
wheel-way1829
1613 H. King Halfe-penny-worth of Wit Ep. Ded. sig. A. 2v More worthy to patronize the deuine Muse of Apollo, or the thundring spirit of Homer, then this Countrey dance of the worlds end.
1730 H. Fielding Tom Thumb ii. ii. 10 A Country Dance of joys is in your Face.
1761 A. Murphy All in Wrong i. 8 They are determined that I shall have the honour of Belinda's hand in the country-dance of matrimony.
1852 C. Dickens Bleak House (1853) viii. 67 An infernal country-dance of costs and fees and nonsense and corruption, as was never dreamed of in the wildest visions of a Witch's Sabbath.
2. A rural social gathering at which dances are performed; a dance held in the country.
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society > leisure > dancing > types of dance or dancing > rustic dances > [noun]
bargenette1531
bargeret1567
Bergomask dance1600
brandon1755
country dance1796
1796 tr. Life Armelle Nicolas i. 3 She seemed..to be delivered from a great burden, being now no more obliged..to attend at country dances and assemblies.
1831 Casket Mar. 116/1 You never was at a country-dance, and are impatient, perhaps, to be let into its description.
1883 W. C. Smith North Country Folk 148 It is not the heaven folk see before 'em, When they fall in love at a country dance.
1935 Bradford (Pa.) Era 12 Dec. 1/8 In Oklahoma when you meet a man with a black eye, sewed-up scalp, or plastered ribs, he is either married or has been to a country dance.
1970 W. Apel Harvard Dict. Music (rev. ed.) 526/2 Characteristically Mexican is the mariachi, the typical band that serves to entertain people in cafés and at village and country dances and celebrations.
1997 M. Murphy Mining Cultures iii. 87 Lisle Scanland had grown up going to country dances with his family and ‘knew what went on outside the dance hall’.
2013 Daily News (New Plymouth, N.Z.) (Nexis) 12 Apr. 11 All four Stockwell sons learnt brass instruments, forming a small ensemble that entertained at country dances.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
country dancev.
/ˌkʌntrɪ ˈdɑːns/, /ˌkʌntrɪ ˈdans/, U.S. /ˈˌkəntri ˈdæns/ intransitive. To engage in country dancing.
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society > leisure > dancing > types of dance or dancing > country-dance or dancing > take part in country-dance or dancing [verb (intransitive)]
country dance1741
1741 H. Walpole Let. 2 Nov. (1857) I. 84 We danced (for I country-danced) till four.
1842 Morning Post 6 Aug. 3/4 The horse she rode..waltzed, galoped, and country-danced with marvellous precision.
1892 J. C. Byrne Gossip of Cent. I. vii. 442 They country-danced, and they quadrilled, and ‘polked’, and waltzed, and promenaded..and, in fact, ‘went on’..as if their ball-room were not the refectory of a mad-house.
1971 Montclair (Calif.) Tribune 15 Apr. He witnessed country dancing, a sword dance, and country danced for the first time.
2000 Austin (Texas) Amer.-Statesman (Nexis) 11 Aug. f3 I roller skate on Tuesday nights at Playland and then I country dance for exercise.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.?1577
v.1741