bourrée

American  

[boo-rey, boo-rey] / bʊˈreɪ, buˈreɪ /

noun

plural

bourrées

1. an old French and Spanish dance, somewhat like a gavotte.

2. the music for it.

---

bourrée British  

/ ˈbʊəreɪ /

noun

1. a traditional French dance in fast duple time, resembling a gavotte

2. a piece of music composed in the rhythm of this dance

---

Etymology

Origin of bourrée

1700–10; < French: literally, bundle of brushwood, originally, the twigs with which the bundle was stuffed (the dance may once have been done around brushwood bonfires); noun use of past participle (feminine) of bourrer to stuff, fill, verbal derivative of bourre hair, fluff < Late Latin burra wool, coarse fabric

Example Sentences

“That’s your pas de bourrée, your pas de gavotte.”

From New York Times • Mar. 10, 2023

This preteen dance troupe will pas de bourrée for the last time.

From New York Times • Jun. 21, 2018

For the finale, we performed a pas de bourrée, glissade and grand jete.

From Washington Post • Nov. 8, 2017

One by one, they re-enter the stage; the first, Cassie Mey, performs bourrée steps on demi-point as her arms rise and fall behind her back like wings.

From New York Times • Oct. 27, 2012

And she went on shaking her head, while the kitchen-maid—the one who danced the bourrée, and was now listlessly rinsing glasses innumerable—giggled behind her mistress's back.

From Wanderings by southern waters, eastern Aquitaine by Barker, Edward Harrison