Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A terrestrial orchid (Calypso bulbosa) native to northern temperate regions, having a rose-pink flower with an inflated pouchlike lip usually marked with white, purple, and yellow.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In botany, a genus of beautiful orchids, consisting of a single species It is a small tuberous plant found in high latitudes throughout the northern hemisphere, and having only a single thin, many-nerved leaf, and a single variegated purple and yellow flower at the end of a slender sheathing stem, with a large lip somewhat like that of the lady's-slipper, Cypripedium. It grows in cold bogs and wet woods, appearing as soon as the snow melts.
- n. In zoology: A genus of crustaceans.
- n. A genus of chalcid hymenopterous insects, of the subfamily Pireninœ, founded by Haliday in 1841: now called Euryophrys (which see).
Wiktionary
- n. A type of music and dance that originated in the West Indies (Trinidad?), a ballad is characterized by improvised lyrics on topical or broadly humorous subjects, often creating satire of current events.
- n. A bulbous bog orchid of the genus Cythera, Calypso bulbosa
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A small and beautiful species of orchid, having a flower variegated with purple, pink, and yellow. It grows in cold and wet localities in the northern part of the United States. The Calypso borealis is the only orchid which reaches 68° N.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (Greek mythology) the sea nymph who detained Odysseus for seven years
- n. rare north temperate bog orchid bearing a solitary white to pink flower marked with purple at the tip of an erect reddish stalk above 1 basal leaf
Etymologies
- Probably Latin Calypsō, Calypso; see Calypso1.
Examples
“But it also had strong roots in calypso and other Carribbean folk forms.”
Ska-Punk: A Tribute to a Lost Musical Genre | Heretical Ideas Magazine
“It could not exactly be described as calypso cricket but the crucial element was that they did not play the familiar refrain of calypso collapso.”
“Dominican Republic etc. I hear more Latino music than I do reggae usually, although I've heard a lot of what's called calypso-usually involving steel drums.”
“And looking at other facets of Alexander's life, the PNCR said that Alexander was well versed in the arts and had a thorough understanding of jazz and other musical art forms such as calypso and soca.”
“The key to the etymology is the recognition that the original form is kaiso; I love the fact that the transmogrification to the highfalutin "calypso" is called, quite properly, folk etymology-the ignorant "folk" aren't always poor and unlettered!”
“To celebrate, he took the family on a real vacation, to the Bahamas; white beaches, conch shells, calypso music and all that, three guys playing”
“Some of them, such as Monsanto's calypso tomato seeds, are treated with deadly poisons which the EPA banned for home use in the U.S.”
The Huffington Post: Beverly Bell: Haitian Farmers: Growing Strength to Grow Food
“For others, it is rock or calypso or pounding drums or electronic beats or maybe it is serial composition or traditional hymns or folk music or country and western.”
“I then blithely displayed my arcane knowledge about the popular late 1940's hit song, Rum and Coca-Cola, which was introduced here by comedian Morey Amsterdam, who claimed to have written it after a trip to the islands ... only a Trinidad calypso composer named Lord Invader sued him and proved he had created it; the courts awarded him $150,000 in royalties.”
“He played with an aggressive tone, like a Sonny Rollins calypso, but never completely stole the spotlight, instead blending in with the unusual ensemble and an equally individual tune, which felt like a Cuban samba, a Rio choro, and a klezmer bulger all at once.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘calypso’.
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music genre
list of music genres - anything. even the most obscure sub-genres of sub-genres
twee pop, indie, shoegaze, doo-wop, punk, rock, jazz, pop, classical, hard rock, emo, goth and 161 more...
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ancient signs
ouroboros, calypso, la sirene, Medusa, chthonic, aureole, colophon, succubus, peri, homunculus, zephyr, numinous and 7 more...
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the lascivious
orgiastic, nymph, breathless, writhe, calypso, Medusa, virago, sapphic, catamite, bisou, buss, succubus and 22 more...
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the beat & the break
words relating to rhythm
syncope, ascensional, sonant, syncopate, assonance, caesura, prosody, modulation, cadence, rhythm, interval, clitter and 7 more...
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song & sound
treeseed From The Free Dictionary:
Noun
pl -sos a West Indian song with improvised topical lyrics probably from Calypso, sea nymph in Greek mythology Jun 3, 2008