roundelayn.
/ˈraʊndᵻleɪ/, U.S. /ˈraʊndəˌleɪ/, /ˈrɑndəˌleɪ/ Now somewhat archaic. Frequently in pastoral poetry, or with pastoral associations.
1. † b. The competitive singing of such songs. Obsolete. rare.
a. A short simple song with a refrain.
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society > leisure > the arts > music > type of music > vocal music > types of song > [noun] > other types of song
roundelaya1475
black sanctus?1533
pastorella1597
orgial1610
balow1613
comic song1718
hunting-song1727
vaudeville1739
apopemptic1753
melologue1820
Orphic1855
wren song1855
air de cour1878
Kunstlied1880
action song1883
come-all-you1887
marching song1894
party song1911
theme song1929
honky-tonker1950
protest song1953
sing-along1959
slow jam1961
talking blues1969
rap1979
a1475 (?a1430) J. Lydgate tr. G. Deguileville Pilgrimage Life Man (Vitell.) 11614 (MED) I teche hem daunce; And also..Endyte lettrys, & songys make Vp-on the glade somerys dayes, Balladys, Roundelays, vyrelayes.
1573 G. Harvey Schollers Loove in Let.-bk. (1884) 105 I beseeche you marke my roundelaye.
1589 R. Greene Menaphon sig. Dv Menaphon..began after some melodie to carroll out this roundelay.
1612 M. Drayton Poly-olbion To Rdr. sig. A Shepheards..singing roundelaies, to their gazing flocks.
a1664 K. Philips Poems (1667) 189 At our Feast he gets the Praise, For his enchanting Roundelayes.
1700 J. Dryden Chaucer's Palamon & Arcite ii, in Fables 28 Who listning heard him, while he search'd the Grove, And loudly sung his Roundelay of Love.
1765 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy VII. xliv. 158 The sister of the youth..sung alternately with her brother—'twas a Gascoigne roundelay.
1808 W. Scott Marmion iii. viii. 140 Now must I venture as I may, To sing his favourite roundelay.
1877 A. B. Edwards Thousand Miles up Nile 449 The two crews met every evening to smoke, and dance, and sing their quaint roundelays together.
1933 D. Thomas Let. Dec. (1987) 64 I certainly indulge in the singing of lewd roundelays.
1980 N. Rhodes Elizabethan Grotesque v. 84 Act one ends with..a kind of roundelay in which he laments his emaciated state.
2000 Witness 14 165 The woman tries to get the others to join her in a roundelay of ‘100 Kegs of Beer on the Wall’.
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society > leisure > the arts > music > performing music > singing > [noun] > competitive singing
roundelay1678
1678 H. Vaughan Thalia Rediviva 69 Here many Garlands won at Roundel-lays Old shepheards hung up in those happy days.
2. A bird's song.
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the world > animals > birds > sound or bird defined by > [noun] > song
songeOE
lay13..
notec1330
shouting1508
record1582
charm1587
roundelay1588
ramage?1614
ornithology1655
jerk1675
birdsong1834
roll1933
1588 N. Yonge Musica Transalpina xxxii. sig. E The Nightingale so pleasant and so gay,..in greenewood groues delights to make his dwelling, in fieldes to flye chanting his roundelay.
1641 T. Beedome Poems sig. C7v The winged birds..Each one by turne did sing his rounde-lay.
1653 I. Walton Compl. Angler iii. 78 The Cuckoe and the Nightingale..with their pleasant roundelayes bid welcome in the Spring. View more context for this quotation
1732 R. Lewis Food for Criticks in Pennsylvania Gaz. 17 July 1/2 Observe the bluebird for a roundelay, The chatt'ring pie, or ever babling jay.
1813 W. Scott Rokeby ii. 78 While linnet, lark, and blackbird gay, Sing forth her nuptial roundelay.
1863 H. W. Longfellow Poet's Tale xviii, in Tales Wayside Inn 198 The whirr Of meadow-lark, and its sweet roundelay.
1914 Pacific Municipalities Mar. 159/2 The soft breezes murmured an accompaniment to the mocking bird's roundelay.
2003 Canberra Times (Nexis) 22 Dec. a14 The bird's predawn roundelay lulls me back to sleep.
3. † b. = fairy ring n. Obsolete. rare.
a. A round dance. Cf. roundel n. 12.
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society > leisure > dancing > types of dance or dancing > round dance > [noun] > specific
rayc1450
Sellenger's round1567
miller's round1579
roundelay1589
cushion-dance1607
prinkum-prankuma1635
roundabout1766
pillow dance1811
batuque1820
walkround1861
hora1878
kissing dance1899
maxixe1909
garba1920
raas garba1935
1589 W. Warner Albions Eng. (new ed.) vi. xxxi. 135 When as they fel to Rowndelaies,..Not Satires, or the Naiades, were halfe so nimble.
a1633 T. Taylor God's Judgem. (1642) i. ii. xxxvi. 288 They fell a dancing, men and women mixtly together,..a ridiculous roundelay.
1674 T. Jordan Goldsmiths Jubile 5 They mingle in their Measures, and Dance with them several Art-less Roundelayes, to the Musick of a Piper.
1777 Universal Mag. Aug. 95/1 Accept of this my dance—or roundelay—Or what you will—In faith it is no play.
1792 A. Geddes Norfolk Tale iii. 51 Can they Cut capers? dance a roundelay, Or jig, or hornpipe?
a1806 H. K. White Remains (1807) I. 295 Dance, dance away, the jocund roundelay!
1867 H. W. Longfellow tr. Dante Inferno vii. 24 So here the folk must dance their roundelay.
1920 L. W. Rapeer Consolidated Rural School xx. 457 Children who learn to dance the natural roundelays and folk-dances will not have the same morbid attitude.
2008 C. Ogden Frost Bites ii. 15 Many festivalgoers in jaunty hats and lederhosen danced roundelays and waved cheerily to one another.
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the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > fairy or elf > [noun] > fairy-ring
circle1563
fairy ring1600
roundelaya1635
fairy circlea1678
mushroom ring1807
pixie ring1837
a1635 R. Corbet Poems (1648) 8 Those Rings and Roundelays Of theirs, which yet remain, Were footed..on many a grassy plain.
4. A piece of music based on or accompanying such a song or dance. Also figurative.
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society > leisure > the arts > music > type of music > vocal music > types of song > [noun] > music for specific types of song
roundelay1604
Black Joke1729
1604 N. Breton Passionate Shepheard (1877) sig. A4 While yee tune your pipes to play, But an idle Roundelay.
a1626 N. Breton in Daffodils & Primroses 16/1 in Wks. (1879) I The muses all haue chose a settinge-place To singe and play the sheppherdes rundeley.
1674 ‘Mr. C.’ Bristol Drollery 56 When e're they sing, or when they play, On Oaten pipe, a roundelay.
1732 Hive IV. 57 So took my pipe and 'gan to play The jolly shepherds roundelay.
1789 T. Robertson in Coll. of Poems 144 While Pan pipes a roundelay.
1820 J. Keats Isabella in Lamia & Other Poems 65 The breath of Winter..plays a roundelay Of death among the bushes and the leaves.
1883 A. E. Sweet & J. A. Knox On Mexican Mustang xxiv. 322 The fiddler tuned up, and played a merry roundelay.
1936 A. Richardson (title) Roundelay. For oboe, or clarinet, and piano.
1957 Pop. Mech. June 110 The visitor can..tap out a roundelay on a harpsichord.
2005 New Yorker 10 Oct. 74/1 Rodney would work through a few bourrées and roundelays.
5. figurative (originally U.S.). A repetitive and apparently pointless cycle of events; a farce. Cf. merry-go-round n. 2.
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1949 Los Angeles Times 3 Nov. ii. 5/1 So long as this roundelay continues, the nation will be losing real wealth, and our standard of living will slowly deteriorate.
1968 Wall St. Jrnl. 9 July 18 Some cynics have treated all this as just another political roundelay.
1990 N.Y. Mag. 30 Apr. 48/2 It's another night at the office, another in the constant roundelay of political money-making exercises.
2005 D. Goewey Crash Out viii. 118 The past decade had been a roundelay of failed attempts to keep him out of lockup.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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