polka
pronunciation
How to pronounce polka in British English:
UK [ˈpɒlkə]
How to pronounce polka in American English:
US [ˈpoʊlkə]
-
- Noun:
- music performed for dancing the polka
- a Bohemian dance with 3 steps and a hop in fast time
Word Origin
- polka (n.)
- 1844, from French polka, German Polka, probably from Czech polka, the dance, literally "Polish woman" (Polish Polka), fem. of Polak "a Pole." The word might also be an alteration of Czech pulka "half," for the half-steps of Bohemian peasant dances. Or it could be a merger of the two. The dance was in vogue first in Prague, 1835; it reached London by the spring of 1842. Vous n'en êtes encore qu'au galop, vieil arriéré, et nous en sommes à la polka! Oui, c'est la polka que nous avons dansée à ce fameux bal Valenlino. Vous demandez ce que c'est que la polka, homme de l année dernière! La contredanse a vécu; le galop, rococo; la valse à deux temps, dans le troisième dessous; il n'y a plus que la polka, la sublime, l'enivrante polka, dont les salons raffolent, que les femmes de la haute, les banquiéres les plus cossues et les comtesses les plus choenosophoses étudient jour et nuit. ["La France Dramatique," Paris, 1841] As a verb by 1846 (polk also was tried).
Example
- 1. I don 't know how to polka .
- 2. It ain 't a polish wedding without a polka !
- 3. My father danced with his grand-daughters , and then the band began to play the " beer barrel polka . "
- 4. The more adventurous could adopt the philippine tradition of polka dots , the circle being the symbol of money .
- 5. Now , he says , the church is run by corporate types , not theologians , and its teachings have become simple and bland , " like people dancing the polka " .