- skip - Brewer’s

Cancan

.

To dance the cancan. A free-and-easy way of dancing quadrilles invented by Rigolboche, and adopted in the public gardens, the opera comique, and the casinos of Paris. (Cancan familiarity, title-tattle.)

“They were going through a quadrille with all those supplementary gestures introduced by the great Rigolboche, a notorious danseuse, to whom the notorious cancan owes its origin.”—A. Egmont Hake: Paris Originals (the Chiffonier).

 

previous entry · index · next entry

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

previous entry · index · next entry

Campbellite
Campceiling
Campeador (cam-pa-dor)
Canace
Canache
Canada Balsam
Canaille (French, can-naye)
Canard
Canary (A)
Canary-bird (A)
Cancan
Cancel
Cancer (the Crab)
Candau les
Candidate
Candide
Candle
Candle-holder
Candles of the Night
Candlemas Day
Candour (Mrs.)

See Also:

Cancan