minuet

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a slow, formal dance in triple time that was fashionable in European courts during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

   The dancers crossed the ballroom with the measured bows and steps of a minuet.

2. 2
   noun

   a piece or movement of music in the rhythm and form of a minuet

   The quartet played the minuet with a light but stately pulse.

3. 3
   verb

   to dance a minuet

   The couples minueted across the polished floor.

From French menuet, from menu ("small, delicate") + the diminutive suffix -et, referring to the dance's small, precise steps. Italian musical usage has minuetto, the form used for many movement titles.

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