n. 1. A dance in rapid 2/4 time of Dominican and Haitian folk origin, characterized by a sliding step. 2. The music for this dance. [Caribbean Spanish, perhaps from Spanish merengue, meringue (although the semantic development is unclear; compare Argentinian and Bolivian Spanish merengue, ruckus, hubbub, possibly in reference to the repeated beating of egg whites in making meringue), from French meringue; see MERINGUE.] |
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