Polka (pronounced pohl-kuh or poh-kuh)
(1) A
lively couple dance of Bohemian origin, with music in duple meter (three steps
and a hop, in fast duple time).
(2) A
piece of music for such a dance or in its rhythm.
(3) To
dance the polka.
(4) As
polka dot (sometimes polka-dot), a dot or round spot (printed, woven, or
embroidered) repeated to form a pattern on a surface, especially textiles; a
term for anything (especially clothing) with this design.
1844:
From the French polka, from the German
Polka, probably from the Czech polka, (the dance, literally
"Polish woman" (Polish Polka),
feminine form of Polak (a Pole). The word might instead be a variant of the Czech
půlka (half (půl the truncated version of půlka
used in special cases (eg telling the time al la the English “half four”))) a
reference to the half-steps of Bohemian peasant dances. It may even be influenced by or an actual
merger of both. The dance first came
into vogue in 1835 in Prague, reaching London in the spring of 1842; Johann
Strauss (the younger) wrote many polkas.
Polka was a verb by 1846 as (briefly) was polk; notoriously it’s often
mispronounced as poke-a-dot.
Lindsay Lohan in polka dot dress, Los Angeles, 2010.
Polka dot (a pattern consisting of dots (usually) uniform in size and arrangement) is used especially on women’s clothing (men seem permitted accessories such as ties, socks, scarves, handkerchiefs etc) and is attested from 1851 although both polka-spot and polka-dotted are documented in 1849.
Why the name came to be associated with the then widely popular dance is unknown but most speculate it was likely an associative thing, spotted dresses popular with the Romani (Roma; Traveller; Gypsy) girls who often performed the polka dance. Fashion journals note that, in the way of such things, the fad faded fast but there was a revival in 1873-1874 and the polka dot since has never gone away, waxing and waning in popularity but always there somewhere.
In
fashion, it’s understood that playing with the two primary variables in polka
dot fabrics (the color mix and the size of the dots) radically can affect the
appeal of an outfit. The classic black
& white combination of course never fails but some colors just don’t work
together, either because the contrast in insufficient or because the mix
produces something ghastly. Actually, combinations
judged ghastly if rendered in a traditional polka dot can successfully be used if the dots
are small enough in order to produce something which will appear at most angles
close to a solid color yet be more interesting because of the effect of light
and movement. However, once dots are too
small, the design ceases to be a polka dot.
It’s not precisely defined what the minimum size of a dot need to be
but, as a general principle, its needs to be recognizably “dotty” to the naked eye at a distance
of a few feet.
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