Etymology

merry-widow

Today it means: To swirl around dancing a romantic or flamboyant waltz. Full definition →

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The story

From Franz Lehár's popular 1905 operetta The Merry Widow (Die lustige Witwe); the romantic centerpiece is a sweeping, hypnotic waltz where the two main characters dance together because they are too stubborn to admit their love out loud.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.