samba

Definition

A Brazilian ballroom dance or dance style.

Etymology

Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese samba, from a Bantu language. Doublet of semba.

Example Sentences

• "And when the samba played, the sun would set so high / Ring through my ears and sting my eyes, your Spanish lullaby"
• "They thought of, I don’t know, monkeys and caipirinhas and samba.”"
• "Slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888; until then, Bahia had been a major hub of the country’s slave trade. Samba started there for a reason—a fact that Veloso has returned to, obsessively, throughout his career. […] “A samba parade had turned into a brawl,” a reviewer wrote in the Times, adding that the music “suggested a more cool-headed, grown-up epilogue to the shocks of Tropicália.”"