belly dance

See also: bellydance and belly-dance

English

Alternative forms

• bellydance, belly-dance

Etymology

Calque of French danse du ventre, equivalent to belly +‎ dance. First attested in English in 1889, in an article about that year's Exposition Universelle in Paris in the November 22 edition of the Yorkshire Factory Times: "A café in the Rue du Caire attracted 2,000 spectators daily to see the ‘belly dance’, and realised a total of 400,000 francs." Early sources also used the French term danse du ventre as-is.

Pronunciation

• Audio (CA)

  (file)

Noun

belly dance (countable and uncountable, plural belly dances)

1. A form of dance originating in the Middle East and characterized by movements of the torso.

Synonyms

• oriental dance

Translations

form of dance

• Afrikaans: maag dans
• Albanian: kercim i belit
• Amharic: የሆድ ዳንስ (yähod dans)
• Arabic: رَقْص شَرْقِيّ m (raqṣ šarqiyy) (oriental dance), رَقْص بَلَدِيّ m (raqṣ baladiyy) (national dance)
• Armenian: պորտապար (hy) (portapar)
• Azerbaijani: göbək rəqsi
• Basque: sabel dantza
• Belarusian: танец жывата (tanjec žyvata)
• Bulgarian: бели денс (beli dens)
• Catalan: dansa oriental, dansa del ventre
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 肚皮舞 (zh) (dùpíwǔ), 東方舞／东方舞 (dōngfāngwǔ)

• Czech: břišní tanec m, orientální tanec m
• Danish: mavedans, orientalsk dans
• Dutch: buikdans (nl) m, oriëntaalse dans m
• Esperanto: ventra danco, orienta danco
• Estonian: kõhutants
• Finnish: vatsatanssi (fi), itämainen tanssi
• French: danse du ventre (fr) f, danse orientale f
• Galician: danza do ventre
• Georgian: მუცლის ცეკვა (muclis ceḳva)
• German: Bauchtanz (de) m, Orientalischer Tanz m
• Greek: χορός οριεντάλ m (chorós orientál), χορός της κοιλιάς m (chorós tis koiliás)
• Hebrew: מחול מזרחי (makhól mizrakhí), ריקוד בטן (makhól béten)
• Hindi: बेली डांस (belī ḍāns)
• Hungarian: hastánc (hu), keleti tánc
• Icelandic: magadans (is) m
• Indonesian: tari perut
• Interlingua: dansa de ventre
• Italian: danza del ventre (it) f, danza dell'est f
• Japanese: ベリーダンス (berīdansu), オリエンタルダンス (orientarudansu)
• Kazakh: іш биі (ış biı)
• Korean: 벨리댄스 (bellidaenseu), 배꼽춤 (baekkopchum), 오리엔탈댄스 (orientaldaenseu)
• Latvian: vēderdejas
• Lithuanian: pilvo šokis
• Macedonian: стомачен танц m (stomačen tanc)
• Malay: tarian gelek
• Mongolian: бэлхүүсний бүжиг (belxüüsnii büžig)
• Norwegian: magedans, orientalsk dans

  Bokmål: magedans m, mavedans m, orientalsk dans m

  Nynorsk: magedans m

• Persian: رقص عربی (raqs 'arabi) (Arabic dance)
• Polish: taniec brzucha (pl) m inan, taniec orientalny m inan
• Portuguese: dança do ventre (pt) f, dança oriental
• Romanian: dans din buric n, dans oriental n
• Russian: та́нец живота́ (ru) m (tánec životá), восто́чный та́нец m (vostóčnyj tánec), беллидэ́нс m (bellidɛ́ns), беллида́нс (ru) m (bellidáns)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: трбушни плес, оријентални плес

  Roman: trbušni ples, orijentalni ples

• Sinhalese: බඩ නැටුම (baḍa næṭuma)
• Slovak: brušný tanec, orientálny tanec
• Slovene: trebušni ples, orientalski ples
• Spanish: danza del vientre f, danza oriental f
• Swedish: magdans (sv) c, orientalisk dans (sv)
• Tagalog: sayaw sa silangan
• Tamil: தொப்பை நடனம் (toppai naṭaṉam)
• Thai: ระบำหน้าท้อง (rá-bam-nâa-thong)
• Turkish: göbek dansı (tr), oryantal dans (tr)
• Ukrainian: танець живота (tanecʹ žyvota), Східний танець (Sxidnyj tanecʹ)
• Urdu: بیلی ڈانس (baili dance)
• Uzbek: qorin raqsi

  Cyrillic: қорин рақси (qorin raqsi)

• Vietnamese: múa bụng
• Volapük: bälidadanüd
• Welsh: bolddawns

Verb

belly dance (third-person singular simple present belly dances, present participle belly dancing, simple past and past participle belly danced)

1. To perform a belly dance.

Derived terms

• belly dancer
• belly dancing

Translations

to perform a belly dance

• Dutch: buikdansen (nl)
• German: bauchtanzen (de)

Further reading

• Hawthorn, Ainsley (May 2019). "Middle Eastern Dance and What We Call It." Dance Research 37 (1): 1-17.
• Hawthorn, Ainsley (May 23, 2019). "Why do we call Middle Eastern dance 'belly dance'?" Edinburgh University Press Blog.
• Morocco (C. Varga Dinicu) (2011). "What's in a Name? More Than You Imagine...." You Asked Aunt Rocky: Answers & Advice About Raqs Sharqi & Raqs Shaabi. Virginia Beach: RDI Publications, 319-350.
• Osweiler, Laura (Amara) (2006). "Naming the Dance." Zaghareet Magazine.
• Shira. "Belly Dance: A Dance By Any Other Name." Shira.net.

Anagrams

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