ghost dance
1
9.8
- noun
- /ɡoʊst dæns/
- Literature
:
danza fantasma
- He starts teaching this, this ghost dance, and it spreads among all the Western peoples and starts taking a lot of different forms.
Examples
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As late as August of 1895, Cherum's followers performed a Ghost Dance.
Academic text (1998) -
The Native American tribes performed the ghost dance as a way to connect with their ancestors.
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Now I believe we left off with the emergence of the ghost dance cult.
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It's a ghost dance.
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Intertribal war dancing flourished during the height of the revived Ghost Dance.
Academic text (1994) -
In 1916, Clark Wissler noted that "the ghost dance was but one of a group of modern ceremonies which have since become conspicuous because of their diffusion."
Academic text (1994) -
Lakota Ghost Dance leaders from Wovoka emphasized that the dancers were not under any circumstances to take up arms in hastening the end of the white man's rule.
Academic text (1998) -
News of Wovoka's visions was spread through sign language between tribal groups speaking different languages, through letters in English written by young Native Americans educated in government schools, and through visits of tribal "delegates" via railway to inquire about the Ghost Dance among faraway groups.
Academic text (2008) -
To Whom It May Concern, the bearer Tatnkawongi (Bull Ghost) has been a prisoner in our agency guard house for the past three weeks, having been suspected by the Indian police of endeavoring to disseminate the Ghost Dance doctrine in some of the settlements.
Academic text (2008) -
Though James Mooney implies in his 1894 investigation of the recent ghost dances that the Lakotas perverted the peaceful teachings of Wovoka, he provides no unambiguous evidence of such perversion.
Academic text (2001)
Synonyms
1
5.8
A dance performed during a religious or traditional ceremony
1
4.2
A dance done during a religious or ritual ceremony to show respect
A dance done during religious or ceremonial events like weddings and funerals
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly composed from 'ghost' (spirit of the dead) + 'dance' (a ritualized movement), so a B1 learner who knows both words would reasonably infer it denotes a dance connected with ghosts or spirit communication. While Ghost Dance is also a specific historical Native American movement, the basic semantic relation is transparent and inferable across languages.
Etymology
Ghost dance comes from a late 1800s Native American movement where people did a dance to call ghosts (the spirits of the dead) and to hope for the return of loved ones and better times. That's why the name links 'ghost' and 'dance' and refers to a dance meant to bring spiritual help.