beguine

Meanings

1. A ballroom dance, similar to a slow rumba, originally from French West Indies and popularized abroad largely through the song "Begin the Beguine"; the music for the dance.

1. A member of a semimonastic Christian lay religious order active in Northern Europe, particularly in the Low Countries in the 13th–16th centuries.

Etymology

From American French béguine, from French béguin.