dancer, dauncer, dawncere

[English danc(e); -er.] 1. Ord . Lang . ( Sing .): One who practices or engages in dancing. 2. Ch . Hist . ( pl .): A religious sect which arose in A. D. 1373, at Aix-la-Chapelle, and spread through Liége, Hainault, and other parts of Belgium. Persons of both sexes, holding each other by the hand, danced, in public or in private, with great energy till they became quite exhausted. They maintained that while so engaged they were favored with wonderful visions. They made a livelihood by religious mendicancy. They had little respect for ordinary church worship or for the ecclesiastical hierarchy. The priests at Liége attributed the frenzy of the dancers to demoniacal po e ion, and believed that they succeeded in casting out the evil spirit by means of hymns and incense. ( Mosheim : Ch. Hist. (cent. xiv.), pt. ii., ch. v., § 8.) Merry dancers : A popular name given to streamers in connection with the Aurora Borealis or to the Aurora itself. The name is most appropriate to streamers which appear to revolve, as they occasionally do. *dan'-çer-ě , s. [Eng. dancer; -e .] A female dancer, a danseuse. *dan-çer-, *dan'-çer-le, s . [Eng. dance ; -ry.] Dancing, the dance. "Two, with whom none would strive in dancerie." Chapman: Homer's Ody ey, viii. dăn-çětte', a . & s. [Fr., from the zigzag shape.] A. As adjective : Her.: Applied to a line of division indented in a manner similar to the zigzag molding in architecture. IMG:content-1785.png:[blocks in formation] 1268