breakdancing

See also: break-dancing and break dancing

English

Alternative forms

• break dancing, break-dancing

Etymology

From break +‎ dancing.

Influenced by breakdown (the percussion break of songs chosen by a DJ for use in hip-hop music) -- breakdancers were originally those who danced to a breakdown.

Noun

breakdancing (uncountable)

1. (dance) An urban style of acrobatic street dance that originated in the hip hop culture of New York City in the late 20th century.
   • 1998 June 7, Lola Ogunnaike, “NOTICED; Breakdancing Regains Its Footing”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 February 2025:

     Hollywood made movies about breakdancing, dancers performed at the White House and the sky seemed the limit.

Synonyms

• b-boying
• b-girling
• breaking

Translations

Style of dance — see also breakdance,‎ break dance

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 霹靂舞 / 霹雳舞 (zh) (pīlìwǔ)

• Esperanto: rompdancado
• Finnish: breikkitanssi
• French: breakdance (fr) m
• Georgian: ბრეიკდანსი (breiḳdansi), ბრეიკ-დანსი (breiḳ-dansi)
• Hungarian: breaktánc
• Japanese: ブレイクダンス (bureikudansu), ブレイキン (bureikin)
• Korean: 브레이크댄스 (beureikeudaenseu), 브레이크댄싱 (beureikeudaensing)
• Macedonian: бре́јкденс m (bréjkdens)
• Māori: kanikani keretao
• Polish: breakdance (pl) m
• Portuguese: breakdance (pt)
• Russian: брейк-да́нс (ru) m (brejk-dáns), брейк (ru) m (brejk)
• Spanish: breakdancing m
• Swedish: breakdance (sv) c, breakdans

References

• 2001. The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: North America. Garland Publishing. Ellen Koskoff (Ed.). Pgs. 694-695.

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English breakdancing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌbɾeiɡˈdanθin/ [ˌbɾei̯ɣ̞ˈð̞ãn̟.θĩn] (Spain, Equatorial Guinea)
• IPA^(key): /ˌbɾeiɡˈdansin/ [ˌbɾei̯ɣ̞ˈð̞ãn.sĩn] (Latin America, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -anθin (Spain, Equatorial Guinea)
• Rhymes: -ansin (Latin America, Philippines)
• Syllabification: break‧dan‧cing

Noun

breakdancing m (uncountable)

1. breakdancing

   Alternative forms: breakdance, break dance, break, break-dance

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.