English Explanatory Dictionary

bossa nova

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A lively Brazilian dance that is similar to the samba.
  2. The music of that dance.
  3. A genre of music originating from Brazil, similar to a fusion of jazz and samba music, no longer closely associated with the Brazilian dance.

Pronunciation

/ˈbɒsə ˈnəʊvə/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-bossa nova.wav

Word forms

bossa nova bossa novas

Etymology

From colloquial Brazilian Portuguese bossa (“inclination, propensity, trend”, literally “protuberance”) + nova (“new”). Compare the English expression new wave, or the French nouvelle vague.

Translations

Bulgarian: бо́са но́ва Chinese Mandarin: 巴薩諾瓦 /巴萨诺瓦 Czech: bossa nova Czech: bossanova Dutch: bossanova Finnish: bossa nova French: bossa nova German: Bossa Nova Polish: bossa nova Portuguese: bossa nova Romanian: bossa-nova
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on B Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary