beguine

From American French béguine, from French béguin.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /beɪˈɡiːn/
• (US) IPA^(key): /bə.ˈɡiːn/

beguine (plural beguines)

1. A ballroom dance, similar to a slow rumba, originally from French West Indies and popularized abroad largely through the song "Begin the Beguine"; the music for the dance.
   • 1935, Cole Porter, Begin the Beguine:

     When they begin the beguine, / It brings back the sound of music so tender / It brings back the night of tropical splendor, / It brings back a memory ever green.

   • 1956, Langston Hughes, I Wonder as I Wander, 2003, Arnold Rampersad, Dolan Hubbard (editors), The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, Volume 14: Autobiography, page 69,

     It was a haunting kind of beguine with a strange sad lyric about slavery and freedom set against insistent drums and voluptuous maracas:

   • 2003, Brent Hayes Edwards, The Practice of Diaspora, page 174:

     He is especially fascinated by the chacha, the percussion instrument that sets the basic rolling rhythmic foundation of the beguine and propels the dancers, writing that “the tempo is set by a shiny tin container filled with pebbles. […] ″

From French béguine.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbeɡiːn/, [ˈbe̞ɡiːn]

beguine

1. beguine (dance and music)