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definitions

ska

[skah]
noun
  1. a modern style of vocalized Jamaican popular music, which emerged in the 1950s as a blend of African-Jamaican folk music, calypso, and American rhythm and blues, notable for its shuffling, scratchlike tempo and jazzlike horn riffs on the offbeat.
Compare reggae, rock steady.

Origin of ska

First recorded in 1960–65; of obscure origin
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for ska

Historical Examples of ska

  • Ska man' dros, or Scamander—a river of the Troad or plains of Troy.

  • Ho som so gjilt kan po Langoleik spelo,Svanaug den vena, ska no væra mi!

    Strife and Peace

    Fredrika Bremer

  • What I want is to drive every pony across the Wakon and up the Ska valley, where we'll find support.

    Under Fire

    Charles King

British Dictionary definitions for ska

ska

noun
  1. a type of West Indian pop music of the 1960s, accented on the second and fourth beats of a four-beat bar

Word Origin for ska

C20: origin unknown
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
Word Origin and History for ska
n.

1964, Jamaican, of unknown origin.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper