English · Idiom Historical

the dansant

Preserved but no longer current.

Meaning · English

An afternoon tea party, with dancing. Theagenes and Chariclea (the aj' e nez, char i kle' a). The hero and heroine of an erotic romance in Greek by Heliodorus, Bishop of Trikka (4th century).

Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)

Sources & notes

Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.

Topics: Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “the dansant” mean?

An afternoon tea party, with dancing. Theagenes and Chariclea (the aj' e nez, char i kle' a). The hero and heroine of an erotic romance in Greek by Heliodorus, Bishop of Trikka (4th century).

Is “the dansant” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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