Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A lively dance in duple meter, originating in Bohemia and performed by couples.
  • noun The music for this dance.
  • intransitive verb To dance the polka.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A lively round dance which originated in Bohemia about 1830, and was soon after introduced into Austria, France, and England, where it immediately attained a remarkable popularity.
  • noun Music for such a dance or in its rhythm, which is duple, and marked by a capricious accent on the second beat, frequently followed by a rest.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A dance of Polish origin, but now common everywhere. It is performed by two persons in common time.
  • noun (Mus.) A lively Bohemian or Polish dance tune in 2-4 measure, with the third quaver accented.
  • noun a kind of knit jacket worn by women.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A lively dance originating in Bohemia.
  • noun The music for this dance.
  • verb intransitive To dance the polka.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb dance a polka
  • noun music performed for dancing the polka
  • noun a Bohemian dance with 3 steps and a hop in fast time

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Czech, probably from Polish, from Polka, Polish woman, feminine of Polak, Pole; see pelə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Czech polka, variant of půlka ("half") as in "half-step".

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Examples

  • My car is covered in polka dots and daisies and elicits the funniest looks from people.

    Archive 2009-09-01 Zenmomma 2009

  • My car is covered in polka dots and daisies and elicits the funniest looks from people.

    Friday Fill-Ins Zenmomma 2009

  • (“While the polka is passé, the polka-dot is here to stay …”) Alice Faye and Carmen Miranda were at an apex and for better and worse many of the images here are the ones North America will most remember Miranda for, including “The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat” and “Brazil”.

    If you want to, you can rhyme it with bazooka.. 2007

  • (“While the polka is passé, the polka-dot is here to stay …”) Alice Faye and Carmen Miranda were at an apex and for better and worse many of the images here are the ones North America will most remember Miranda for, including “The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat” and “Brazil”.

    Archive 2007-03-01 2007

  • "Now, that's what I call a polka!" said the girl, and began to swing round.

    The Girl from the Marsh Croft 1910

  • Jim Kucera, a former Sladky musician now serving as band director for Waverly Middle School, said Mathias "taught me to enjoy and take pride in Czech polka music, or it just would not be worth it."

    JournalStar.com - News Articles 2009

  • The tree bore for me a 'polka'-jacket to wear in the house - grey tweed, trimmed with blue, and lined with blue quilted silk - quite charming.

    Selections from the Letters of Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury to Jane Welsh Carlyle 1892

  • i dont know what im gonna wear im gonna buy tickets for phil for his 21st to see either lagwagon or unwritten law and mxpx - i'll let him decide i dont mind going to either ... why are they called polka dots??? hmmm .... i've seen it all befores - i've known it all along

    anasthesia Diary Entry anasthesia 2004

  • Perforated beamsplitters (often termed polka-dot beamsplitters; see Figure 8 (c)) are fabricated by coating an optical glass substrate with a thin layer of aluminum in fixed-size square apertures.

    unknown title 2009

  • Perforated beamsplitters (often termed polka-dot beamsplitters; see Figure 8 (c)) are fabricated by coating an optical glass substrate with a thin layer of aluminum in fixed-size square apertures.

    unknown title 2009

Comments

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  • I can't say this word without swallowing the "L" all Tom-Brokaw-like. Sigh....

    April 27, 2007

  • He is pretty dreamy. ;)

    January 28, 2008

  • I had thought that this word must have originally referred to a Polish dance, but apparently the dance originated in Bohemia and the name derives from the Czech word půlka (of which polka would be an earlier spelling), meaning "half-step".

    December 23, 2009

  • In SBC the root for the country name is 'polj-', whereas 'half' is 'pol-'. So, this makes sense.

    December 24, 2009