samba

Etymology

It is borrowed from Portuguese samba, also zamba,^[2][3][4] a word of African origin.^{[3][5][6][7][8]} The American Heritage Dictionary suggests that it may come from Kongo semba, a dance move in which partners push out their bellies and touch navels.^[9] Dictionary.com calls the African origin alleged.^[10] Barnhart and Etymonline report a different view, from the Spanish etymologist Corominas: that the Portuguese forms are shortened from the name of another dance, itself altered from a word for a stupid man, from a verb meaning to bump or crash.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Brazilian dance of African origin: 1885, in W. Moberly's Rocks and Rivers of British Columbia.^[3][5][4] Barnhart notes that the 1885 record has the form Zemba, and that Samba is found from 1911.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The word soon covered the ballroom dance modelled on the Brazilian one and the music written for it.^[3][11][5] Etymonline quotes a note of 1938 that the dance was then just beginning to make its way in New York nightclubs.^[4] The verb, to dance the samba, is recorded from 1949 in Etymonline, but only from 1950 in the OED, which also lists a figurative use.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 1885 – a Brazilian dance, as Zemba.^[3][2]
• 1911 – the spelling Samba.^[2]
• 1949 – verb, to dance the samba.^[4] The OED's first record is from 1950.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lively Brazilian dance of African origin, or a ballroom dance based on it, with a bouncing step in duple time.^[6][5][3]
2. A piece of music for this dance.^[6][5][3]

Verb

1. To dance the samba.^[6][5][3]

Usage notes

The OED also records samba, from 1958, as a variant of Sambo, which has a separate source.^[3]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press