pirouette

See also: Pirouette and pirouetté

English

WOTD – 6 February 2007

Etymology

Borrowed from French pirouette, see there for more; attested since 1706.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌpɪ.ɹʊˈɛt/, /ˌpɪ.ɹuːˈɛt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌpɪ.ɹəˈwɛt/, /ˌpɪ.ɹuːˈɛt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛt

Noun

pirouette (plural pirouettes)

1. A whirling or turning on the toes in dancing, primarily in ballet.
2. The whirling about of a horse.

Translations

whirling or turning on the toes

• Armenian: պիրուետ (hy) (piruet), ոտնապտույտ (hy) (otnaptuyt)
• Bulgarian: пирует m (piruet)
• Danish: piruet (da) c
• Finnish: piruetti
• French: pirouette (fr) f
• German: Pirouette (de) f
• Korean: 피루엣 (piruet)
• Maori: huri hīteki
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: piruett m

  Nynorsk: piruett m

• Polish: piruet (pl) m
• Portuguese: pirueta f
• Romanian: piruetă (ro) f
• Russian: пируэ́т (ru) m (piruét)
• Swedish: piruett (sv) c
• Turkish: dönüş (tr)

the whirling about of a horse

• Danish: piruet (da) c
• Finnish: piruetti
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: piruett m

  Nynorsk: piruett m

• Polish: piruet (pl) m
• Portuguese: pirueta f
• Swedish: piruett (sv) c

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• German: ^{(please verify)} Pirouette (de) f

Verb

pirouette (third-person singular simple present pirouettes, present participle pirouetting, simple past and past participle pirouetted)

1. (intransitive) To perform a pirouette; to whirl on the toes, like a dancer.
   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VIII:

     I came down like a sack of coals. The pulse was rapid, the blood pressure high, and for awhile the Blue Room pirouetted about me like an adagio dancer.

Translations

to perform a pirouette

• Finnish: tehdä piruetti
• Polish: zakręcić piruet
• Portuguese: fazer (uma) pirueta

Further reading

• Glossary of ballet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Pirouette (dressage) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French pirouette, see there for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌpi.ruˈɛ.tə/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pi‧rou‧et‧te
• Rhymes: -ɛtə

Noun

pirouette f (plural pirouettes or pirouetten)

1. pirouette

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pi.ʁwɛt/

• Audio

  (file)

Etymology 1

From a Gallo-Roman root *pir- („peg, plug“, hence Italian piruolo (“peg top”)) and -ette (diminutive suffix). The word originally meant a “spinning top” (15th century).

Noun

pirouette f (plural pirouettes)

1. a whirling or turning on the toes in dancing
2. (sports, equestrians) a whirling volt movement made by a horse

Derived terms

• pirouetter

Descendants

• → Catalan: pirueta
• → Dutch: pirouette
• → English: pirouette
• → German: Pirouette
• → Italian: piroetta
• → Polish: piruet
• → Russian: пируэ́т (piruét)

Etymology 2

Verb

pirouette

1. inflection of pirouetter:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “pirouette”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• Vocabulaire de la danse classique on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^fr