bossa nova
1
4.0
- noun
- /ˈbɔsə ˈnoʊvə/
:
bossa nova
- She danced gracefully to the rhythm of bossa nova during the evening fiesta.
- Brazilian bossa nova
Examples
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From Noah, African pop guitarists to Brazilian Bossa Nova masters, your class can share new interactive grooves or presentations of multicultural musical information directly from the source.
Academic text (1998) -
Where Miranda used language to establish the Latinness of her performance, Xuxa struggles to master English on a TV program that is described as "as Latin American as tango and bossa nova." 50 Language has been recruited to the cause of various English.
Academic text (1998) -
We're going to learn how to play bossa Nova guitar.
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From the Kenyan Dry Guitar to Brazilian Bossa Nova, British Rock to Appalachian Bluegrass, it is a vehicle of human expression.
Academic text (1998) -
At the café, we enjoyed listening to smooth bossa nova music while sipping our drinks.
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The soothing melodies of bossa nova create a relaxing atmosphere perfect for unwinding.
How Smooth
1
4.0
1
4.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
bossa + nova
This is a lexicalized loan from Portuguese referring to a specific music genre; the given constituents have no English dictionary senses here ('bossa' is opaque to English learners, and 'nova' as 'new' does not by itself indicate a musical style). Because the genre meaning is conventional and not predictably composed from the parts for a B1 learner, the expression is opaque.
Etymology
Bossa nova comes from Portuguese where bossa meant 'skill' or 'style' and nova meant 'new'. Brazilian musicians in the late 1950s used the phrase for a fresh, smooth way of playing samba with jazz, so today bossa nova names that relaxed kind of music.