1885 W. Moberly Rocks & Rivers Brit. Columbia 17 It was here I first saw the graceful South American dance—the Zemba Queca (I am not certain how it is spelt).

1911 B. Miall tr. P. Denis Brazil xiii. 324 It is during these festivals that the negro dances are performed; the Coco and the Samba.

1929 H. Miles tr. P. Morand Black Magic p. i 1919—Darius Milhaud arrives from Brazil. He..plays me those Negro Sambas which are shortly to serve for the music of his Bœuf sur le Toit.

1939 Britannica Bk. of Year (U.S.) 201/1 The samba is the national dance of Brazil, much as the fox trot is in the United States... In 1938, the samba was just beginning to make its way in the New York night clubs.

1942 D. Pierson Negroes in Brazil ix. 248 It was of these Bahianas that Carmen Miranda sang when she recently captivated Broadway with the staccato notes of the rollicking samba by Dorival Caymmi, ‘Que é a Bahiana tem?’

1942 D. Pierson Negroes in Brazil ix. 249 The samba, or samba batida, a regional form of the old batuque, although it has now been taken over by the upper classes and in a modified form become not only one of the most characteristic musical forms but also one of the favorite dances of Brazil, is still enjoyed in its primitive simplicity by the Bahian lower classes.

1949 M. Dickens Flowers on Grass ix. 240 Mervyn and Wanda were doing a Samba.

1950 J. Vedey Band Leaders 132 He [sc. Edmundo Ros] states that many of the numbers published as Sambas are not really Sambas at all... In 1940..the Rumba was the only known dance of its kind, played in either slow or fast tempo. The Samba, which Ros himself actually introduced, followed.

1950 J. Vedey Band Leaders 144 Who are these thousands of people packing the Palais de Danse and jiving wildly to the sambas and Bop arrangements of the popular bands?

1954 J. Steinbeck Sweet Thursday xxviii. 199 The crazy trumpet put a samba beat to the ‘Wedding March’.

1965 W. Soyinka Road 21 I have not seen any other tout who would stand on the lorry's roof and play the samba at sixty miles an hour.

1974 Down Beat 18 July 26/3 Zoot, Jaki and Al all get their say in a medley of sambas.

1977 Gramophone Aug. 353/3 Barlow specializes in the more traditional sequined ballroom fare of quicksteps, waltzes, foxtrots, a tango, cha cha chas, a samba, slow rumbas, a pasodoble and jive.

1979 P. Fox Mantis iv. 62 Great driving-music: hard rock Samba, plenty of guitar.

1958 J. Carew Wild Coast ix. 126 It please me eyes to see you growing up into a proper samba man.

1959 J. Morris Adversary i. 9 A couple of upcountry corregidors..had three girls between them... One of them looked like a samba.

1974 Black World Aug. 55 The Dirty Tricks store window featured a grotesque, black-purple mask of a ‘samba’ sister with a bone through its nose.

1950 in Webster's New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. Add.

1959 J. Drummond Black Unicorn xviii. 128 He put his arm round my waist, and started trying to make me samba.

1972 Time 22 May 9/3 Brazil had sambaed away with the talks.

1975 Times 14 Apr. 12/4 37 couples..were required to cha-cha, samba, rumba and paso doble.

1979 C. Wood James Bond & Moonraker xi. 111 How do you kill five hours in Rio if you don't samba?