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Being slightly obsessed with turning, swirling things, on earth and elsewhere, I'm wondering about the Can-Can.
What does the French "Can" mean here?
And, if you didn't dance the dance, would it be the "Can't-Can't"?
Sights on lifting ruffles and flounces,
Ooh-la-la! OohrB~
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Sparteye, who is arranging and choreographing our ladies' Can-Can performance for Wordapalooza! ? 
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What does the French "Can" mean here?
The way I've reconstructed it, nothing.
The story that I have heard is that the pronunciation of Latin slowly changed from country to country, reflecting the pronuciation of the national language of that country. This is reflected in the two most common liturgical Latins of today, the Italianate, characterized by the [kw] pronunciation of qu, the [tsh] of c before i, e or y and the softening of g before the same vowels; and the German, characterized by the [kv] pronunciation of qu and the [ts] of c before i or e. The g is always hard in German church Latin.
The worst offenders in this were the French who pronounced quamquam [kãkã]. This pronunciation was later spelled cancan and came to mean a disreputable performance.
That's as far as the story went. The leap from there to the name of the dance is all mine, as far as I know.
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Just a sample of what a search turns up:
The super-sexual phat funk of the can-can at the Moulin Rouge featuring "The Four Whores," (L-R) Mome
Fromage (Lara Mulcahy), Nini-Legs-In-The-Air (Caroline O'Connor), China Doll (Natalie Mendoza) and Arabia
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There are Egyptian relief's that depict the fundamental Can-Can high kicking above the audiences heads. The Catatonians and
Parisian women (French) also are depicted kicking the hats off of the gentlemen spectators. The "Triori" of 1549 from South Brittany
was very similar to today's cancan, the women danced alone, Lifting their dresses up in front and kicking their legs up to the ceiling.
The dancers or "High-Kickers" as they were called, emerged over time and ended up in Paris, France. In the late 19th. century Paris
was still the dance center of the world.
The Can-Can is a hybrid of the Polka and the Quadrille and was said to be first danced in 1822, being outlawed for a number of
years as immoral and indecent and prohibited by the police. It has been said that "Chicard" invented the Can-Can, but very doubtful
(He more probably named it). The Can-Can's first American public performance was in the "Black Crook" at Niblo's Gardens in New
York, September 12th., 1866.
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Mark Twain on the "can-can".
The dance had begun, and we adjourned to the temple (1). Within it was a drinking-saloon; and all around it was a
broad circular platform for the dancers. I backed up against the wall of the temple, and waited. Twenty sets formed,
the music struck up, and then--I placed my hands before my face for very shame. But I looked through my fingers.
They were dancing the renowned Can-can. A handsome girl in the set before me tripped forward lightly to meet the
opposite gentleman--tripped back again, grasped her dresses vigorously on both sides with her hands, raised them
pretty high, danced an extraordinary jig that had more activity and exposure about it than any jig I ever saw before,
and then, drawing her clothes still higher, she advanced gaily to the center and launched a vicious kick full at her
vis_a_vis (2) that must infallibly have removed his nose if he had been seven feet high. It was a mercy he was only
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Dear Faldage,
The worst offenders in this were the French who pronounced quamquam [kãkã]. This pronunciation was later spelled cancan and came to mean a disreputable performance.....
What did quamquam originally mean--before its transition into that deliciously disreputable dance?
Highest kicks out of these words,
OrB~
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to understand why the CanCan is considered disreputable, you need to understand clothes..
back in the days of full skirts, and no rubber or synthetic for elastic, woman wore an undergarment, pantaloons, that sort of looked like a loose pair of knee length pants.. only the crotch seam was not closed--except it the very front.
Starting about where a men's fly (Zipper placket) ends, the crotch seam was open to the back. the garment had a drawstring, and tied on, in the back-- it was the wearer responsibility to make sure the sides of garment met at the draw sting.
This kind of underwear mades sense-- with a full skirt, it was not convient for women to pull down their panties (pataloons)-- remember to do so, they would have to untie them! With the open crotch, they could just pull the garment aside to respond to calls of nature.
In the CanCan, the woman flashed their skirts up, and kicked up their feet, and as they did so, they often gave others a glimse of their underwear- and many a time what was under their underwear!-- shocking indeed!
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What did quamquam originally mean?
It was just one of those little words that we use to fill in the chinks between the main elements of our thoughts. Really irrelevant to the subject of discourse. It means although , though; or, at the beginning of a sentence, nevertheless, and yet.
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