czardas
Americannoun
noun
-
a Hungarian national dance of alternating slow and fast sections
-
a piece of music composed for or in the rhythm of this dance
Etymology
Origin of czardas
First recorded in 1855–60; from Hungarian csárdás, equivalent to csárda “wayside tavern” (from Serbo-Croatian čȁrdāk originally, “watchtower,” from Turkish çardak “bower, booth, pergola,” from Persian chārtāk “four-cornered room”; čār “four” + tāk “vault”) + -s adjective suffix; earlier csárdák was analyzed as csárda + -k plural suffix
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.
Orchester Prazevica The music of Slovak guitarist Tomas Drgon’s string combo mixes Eastern European czardas, Gypsy swing and jazz.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 4, 2016
The last-act wedding of Raymonda and Jean honors his uncle, King Andrew of Hungary, with Hungarian national dances and classical variations on the theme of the Hungarian czardas.
From New York Times ● Feb. 24, 2016
What mazurka and what czardas are more irresistible than those here?
From New York Times ● Jun. 1, 2014
Though they are often polonaises or czardas, they are not folk dances but theatrical steps that must be performed with panache.
From Time Magazine Archive
From a kiosk a band of Hungarians distributed selections of popular rot, sometimes their own delirious czardas.
From The Perfume of Eros: A Fifth Avenue Incident by Edgar Saltus
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.
