A lively Scottish or pseudo-Scottish dance in quick duple meter, popular in the 18th and 19th centuries.
From French 'écossaise' (Scottish), derived from 'Écosse' (Scotland). The term emerged in 18th-century France as a fashionable ballroom dance that captured imagined 'Scottish' character, though it wasn't actually from Scotland.
The ecossaise is hilariously not actually Scottish—it's what French aristocrats *thought* Scottish dances were like! It became popular in European ballrooms despite having almost nothing to do with real Scottish dancing.
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