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Glite Dictionary
zydeco

zydeco

4 9.9
A lively music style from southern Louisiana that mixes Creole, Caribbean, and blues sounds, often with accordion and washboard
  • noun
  • /ˈzaɪdɪkoʊ/
: zydeco
  • "Tom has a friend who has a zydeco band..." Gaby says.
  • zydeco music

You know, we're country, Zydeco, emo, drywall.

Examples

  • A Zydeco band was warming up for Etta James.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Today she writes screenplays and he's doing cool things with a zydeco band.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Found my parents' zydeco collection.

    Straw Dogs (2011)

  • "Let's have a nice dinner tonight, a special dinner, and then go listen to some zydeco music.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • I'd want a zydeco band, Patrick.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The zydeco band plays a hora and everyone dances.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Maybe a little zydeco at the Cajun Crawfish House on Bourbon Street.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Festival-goers can enjoy locally produced boiled crawfish while listening and dancing to Cajun and zydeco music played by Louisiana transplants who live in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento.

    Academic text (2013)

  • At the festival, Creoles sought to articulate sole ownership of Zydeco music, an Afro-French genre of accordion-led music that is often mistakenly identified as Cajun music.

    Academic text (1999)

  • Every Saturday night, we enjoy live zydeco music that gets everyone dancing.

Surface Forms

zydeco singular
zydecos plural

Etymology

Zydeco likely comes from Louisiana Creole and grew from a line in an old Creole song, 'les haricots ne sont pas salés' meaning 'the beans aren't salted', which people sang quickly at dances. So zydeco became the name for the lively Creole dance music with accordion and washboard.