galliard
Americannoun
noun
-
a spirited dance in triple time for two persons, popular in the 16th and 17th centuries
-
a piece of music composed for this dance
adjective
Etymology
Origin of galliard
1525–35; < Middle French gaillard, noun use of adj.: lively, vigorous (> Middle English gaillard, late Middle English galyarde ), probably < Gallo-Romance *galia < Celtic (compare MIr gal warlike ardor, valor); see -ard
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A fantasia and a pavan and galliard by William Byrd were riveting.
From Washington Post • Jan. 15, 2017
It seems the sort of thing a poet so habited might be expected to say between a galliard and a coranto.
From Gossip in a Library by Gosse, Edmund
Go to, play a galliard vpon the violl.
From Schools, School-Books and Schoolmasters by Hazlitt, W. Carew
They no more think of weaving whole paragraphs or chapters into complex harmonies, than an ordinary pedestrian of 'going to church in a galliard and coming home in a coranto.'
From Hours in a Library, Volume I. (of III.) by Stephen, Leslie, Sir
His hopes are laden in his quality; and, lest fiddlers should take him unprovided, he wears pumps in his pocket; and, lest he should take fiddlers unprovided, he whistles his own galliard.
From Character Writings of the 17th Century by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
