minuet
[min-yoo-et]
- a slow, stately dance in triple meter, popular in the 17th and 18th centuries.
- a piece of music for such a dance or in its rhythm.
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Origin of minuet
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for minuet
Contemporary Examples
The first was the private, then public, minuet of reassurances to the two visitors.
Historical Examples
I must then forgive his ignorance of the minuet and quadrilles.
After the minuet I danced twelve forlanas with the greatest vigour.
The Memoires of Casanova, CompleteJacques Casanova de Seingalt
It's just a minuet—reconnoissance of Frémont and Dick Taylor!
The Long RollMary Johnston
One, who recognized Judith, swept his aside with a gesture appropriate to a minuet.
The Long RollMary Johnston
I had never seen the minuet danced with more grace and spirit.
The Rose of Old St. LouisMary Dillon
minuet
- a stately court dance of the 17th and 18th centuries in triple time
- a piece of music composed for or in the rhythm of this dance, sometimes as a movement in a suite, sonata, or symphonySee also scherzo
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Word Origin
C17: from French menuet dainty (referring to the dance steps), from menu small
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for minuet
n.
"slow dance in triple measure," 1670s, from French menuet, from Old French menuet (adj.) "small, fine, delicate, narrow," from menu "small," from Latin minutus "small, minute" (see minute (adj.)). So called from the short steps taken in the dance. Spelling influenced in English by Italian minuetto.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper