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rigadoon

[ rig-uh-doon ]

noun

  1. a lively dance, formerly popular, for one couple, characterized by a jumping step and usually in quick duple meter.
  2. a piece of music for this dance or in its rhythm.


rigadoon

/ ˌrɪɡəˈduːn; riɡodɔ̃ /

noun

  1. an old Provençal couple dance, light and graceful, in lively duple time
  2. a piece of music for or in the rhythm of this dance
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Word History and Origins

Origin of rigadoon1

1685–95; < French rigaudon, perhaps from name Rigaud
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Word History and Origins

Origin of rigadoon1

C17: from French, allegedly from its inventor Rigaud , a dancing master at Marseille
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Example Sentences

An indignant captain looks like “he’d just been asked if he danced the rigadoon or played the hurdy-gurdy.”

She called it “a rigadoon of rascality, a bawled-out comic song of sex.”

Gore Vidal called his writing pornographic; Dorothy Parker claimed nobody could write a better novel than “The Ginger Man”—which she called “a rigadoon of rascality, a bawled-out comic song of sex”—unless that person was Donleavy himself.

Then we shall meet at Castle balls, and you shall lead me out for a rigadoon like a mere stranger.

As Doreen pictured, he had attended the Castle balls during the winter, and had led out his cousin for a turn of passepied or rigadoon without much sighing; had dutifully called on his mother when Shane was safe away, and had spent the rest of his time yawning over briefs for the behoof of Mr. Curran.

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