breakdancing

See also: break-dancing and break dancing

English

Alternative forms

• break dancing, break-dancing

Etymology

From break +‎ dancing.

Influenced by breakdown (the percussion break of songs chosen by a DJ for use in hip-hop music) -- breakdancers were originally those who danced to a breakdown.

Noun

breakdancing (uncountable)

1. (dance) An urban style of acrobatic street dance that originated in the hip hop culture of New York City in the late 20th century.
   • 1998 June 7, Lola Ogunnaike, “NOTICED; Breakdancing Regains Its Footing”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Hollywood made movies about breakdancing, dancers performed at the White House and the sky seemed the limit.

Synonyms

• b-boying
• b-girling
• breaking

Translations

Style of dance

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 霹靂舞／霹雳舞 (zh) (pīlìwǔ)

• Esperanto: rompdancado
• Finnish: breikkitanssi
• French: breakdance (fr) m
• Georgian: ბრეიკდანსი (breiḳdansi), ბრეიკ-დანსი (breiḳ-dansi)
• Hungarian: breaktánc
• Macedonian: бре́јкденс m (bréjkdens)
• Maori: kanikani keretao
• Polish: breakdance (pl) m
• Portuguese: breakdance (pt)
• Russian: брейк-да́нс (ru) m (brejk-dáns), брейк (ru) m (brejk)
• Swedish: breakdance c, breakdans

References

• 2001. The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: North America. Garland Publishing. Ellen Koskoff (Ed.). Pgs. 694-695.

Spanish

Noun

breakdancing m (uncountable)

1. breakdancing