Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- an old French dance in moderately quick quadruple meter.
- a piece of music for, or in the rhythm of, this dance, often forming one of the movements in the classical suite, usually following the saraband.
noun
- an old formal dance in quadruple time
- a piece of music composed for or in the rhythm of this dance
lively dance, 1690s, from French gavotte (17c.), from Old Provençal gavoto “mountaineer’s dance,” from gavot, a local name for an Alpine resident, literally “boor, glutton,” from gaver “to stuff, force-feed poultry,” from Old Provençal gava “crop.” From the same source is French gavache “coward, dastard.”