samba

name

1. A town and district of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

noun

Etymology: Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese samba, from a Bantu language. Doublet of semba.

1. A Brazilian ballroom dance or dance style.
2. A Brazilian musical genre, to which the aforementioned dance is danced, which has its roots in West Africa via the slave trade.

   “And when the samba played, the sun would set so high / Ring through my ears and sting my eyes, your Spanish lullaby”

   “They thought of, I don’t know, monkeys and caipirinhas and samba.””

verb

Etymology: Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese samba, from a Bantu language. Doublet of semba.

1. To dance the samba.

   “In front of an audience, he tends to have a freer conversation with himself. The right conditions turn him into an extrovert. He sambas, in the Santo Amaro style.”