Etymology: < Middle French, French †matachin kind of dance, kind of comic dancer (1542; Middle French, French matassin (a1589)) and its etymon Italian mattaccino kind of dance (16th cent.), kind of comic dancer, buffoon (15th cent.) < matto buffoon (see mate adj.¹) + -accino, pejorative diminutive suffix. Some 19th- and 20th-cent. examples represent secondary borrowings. Compare Spanish matachín kind of dance (1559), German Matassin kind of dance (1598 as ‘Matassin oder Toten Tanz’).The dance was popular throughout Europe from the 16th to the 18th cent.; it also spread to Spanish-speaking countries of America (see matachin n.²). In origin perhaps a battle dance, it developed in diverse ways in different countries: variously as a comical dance of ‘fools’, a skilled sword dance, a ritual dance of celebration, or a dance of death. The forms machachina, matachina, mattachina may represent misapprehensions of Italian mattaccino.

Etymology: < American Spanish matachín (plural matachines ) dancer in the ritual dance described below, specific use of Spanish matachín matachin n.¹ The word probably entered English in the plural form.In sense 2 probably after American Spanish los matachines (plural) in this sense (see quot. 1931¹ at sense 2, although apparently not attested elsewhere). The form matachine is inferred from the plural matachines ; the form matachina is unexplained: perhaps inferred from the irregular plural matachinas , or perhaps of some other origin (compare quot. 1931¹ at sense 2).