Crossword clues for beguine
beguine
- (Roman Catholic) a member of a lay sisterhood (one of several founded in the Netherlands in the 12th and 13th centuries)
- Though not taking religious vows the sisters followed an austere life
- A ballroom dance that originated in the French West Indies
- Similar to the rumba
- Dance in a Cole Porter song
- Ballroom dance similar to the rumba
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Beguine \Be`guine"\, n. [F. b['e]guine; LL. beguina, beghina; fr. Lambert le B[`e]gue (the Stammerer) the founder of the order. (Du Cange.)] A woman belonging to one of the religious and charitable associations or communities in the Netherlands, and elsewhere, whose members live in beguinages and are not bound by perpetual vows. [1913 Webster] ||
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 15c., from French béguine (13c.), Medieval Latin beguina, a member of a women's spiritual order said to have been founded c.1180 in Liege in the Low Countries. They are said to take their name from the surname of Lambert le Bègue "Lambert the Stammerer," a Liege priest who was instrumental in their founding, and it's likely the word was pejorative at first.\n
\nThe order generally preserved its reputation, though it quickly drew imposters who did not; nonetheless it eventually was condemned as heretical. A male order, called Beghards founded communities by the 1220s in imitation of them, but they soon degenerated (compare Old French beguin "(male) Beguin," also "hypocrite") and wandered begging in the guise of religion; they likely were the source of the words beg and beggar, though there is disagreement over whether Beghard produced Middle Dutch beggaert "mendicant" or was produced by it.\n
\nCole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" (1935) refers to a kind of popular dance of West Indian origin, from French colloquial béguin "an infatuation, boyfriend, girlfriend," earlier "child's bonnet," and before that "nun's headdress" (14c.), from Middle Dutch beggaert, ultimately the same word.
Wiktionary
n. 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.
Wikipedia
The beguine is a dance and music form, similar to a slow rhumba. It was popular in the 1930s, coming from the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, where in local Creole Beke or Begue means a White person, and Beguine is the female form. It is a combination of Latin folk dance and French ballroom dance, and is a spirited but slow, close dance with a roll of the hips.
After Cole Porter wrote the song " Begin the Beguine", the dance became more widely known beyond the Caribbean. The song was introduced in Porter's Jubilee (1935).
Usage examples of "beguine".
Ennelina listened close, but later admitted she had heard some of it before rumours of my Bible were strong in the convents at which she lodged during her missions for the Beguine sisterhood.
Bible were strong in the convents at which she lodged during her missions for the Beguine sisterhood.
I admit a knowledge of a Beguine, but I deny all knowledge of Madame de Chevreuse.
The Beguine, thereupon, advanced a few steps toward the queen, and bowed reverently before her.
Properly speaking, they were not nuns but Beguines lay sisters in gowns and head-dress.
In the Beguines they had a sect of their own, a lay order that followed its own religious rule of good works and, when nunneries had no room, provided a place for unmarried women and widows, or, as a bishop wrote in criticism of the Beguines, a retreat from the “coercion of marital bonds.
At street meetings the Beguines read the Bible translated into French.
I will take the Queen some of this holy water, which I will procure from the Beguines of Bruges.
At the same moment a woman, masked, appeared between the curtains, and before the Queen could speak, added, "I am connected with the order of the Beguines of Bruges, and do indeed bring with me the remedy which is certain to effect a cure of your Majesty's complaint.
They stated that they were beguines from a house in the city of Cologne, and they were traveling on passports issued by the archbishop-elector of Cologne.
And as the fisherman casts his net into the stream with intent to take many fish at one throw: so 'tis the main solicitude and study, art and craft of these friars to embrace and entangle within the ample folds of their vast swelling skirts beguines, widows and other foolish women, ay, and men likewise in great number.