Editing Morris dance (section)

==Name and origins==

Throughout its history, the Morris seems to have been common. It was imported from village festivities into popular entertainment after the invention of the [[court masque]] by [[Henry VIII]]. The word Morris apparently derived from ''morisco'', meaning '[[Moors|Moorish]]'. [[Cecil Sharp]], whose collecting of Morris dances preserved many from extinction, suggested that it might have arisen from the dancers' [[blackface and Morris dancing|blacking their faces]] as part of the necessary ritual disguise.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/Morris-dance |title=Morris dance |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] }}</ref>

The name is first recorded in [[English language|English]] in the mid-15th century as {{lang|enm|Morisk dance}}, {{lang|enm|moreys daunce}}, {{lang|enm|morisse daunce}}, i.e. 'Moorish dance'. The term entered English via Flemish {{lang|nl|mooriske danse}}. Comparable terms in other languages include German {{lang|de|Moriskentanz}} (also from the 15th century), French {{lang|fr|morisques}}, Croatian {{lang|hr|[[moreška]]}}, and {{lang|it|moresco}}, {{lang|ca|[[moresca]]}} or {{lang|es|morisca}} in Italy and Spain. The modern spelling ''Morris-dance'' first appeared in the 17th century.<ref>[[OED]], s.v. "morris dance" and "Morisk". D. Arnold, ''The New [[Oxford Companion to Music]]'', vol. 2 (Oxford University Press, 1983), p. 1203.</ref> In Edward Phillips's ''[[The New World of English Words]]'', first published in 1658, the term ''morisco'' was referenced as both "a Moor" and "the Morris dance, as it were the Moorish dance", while John Bullokar defined it in 1695 as "a certain dance used among the Moors; whence our Morris dance".<ref>{{cite book |last= Phillips |first= Edward |title= The New World of English Words |year= 1658}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Bullokar |first= John |title= An English Expositour |year= 1695}}</ref>

[[Image:Moreska Grasser06.jpg|thumb|upright|One of [[Erasmus Grasser]]'s small {{lang|de|Moriskentänzer}} statues from 1480, showing what would have been termed a "moorish" dancer, where [[commons:Category:Moreska dancers (Grasser)|seven of the other nine surviving carvings]] are fairer-skinned. All wear bells on their legs.]]

It is unclear how the dance came to be referred to as Moorish, "unless in reference to fantastic dancing or costumes", i.e. the deliberately "exotic" flavour of the performance.<ref>[[OED]], [[etymonline.com]].</ref> The English dance thus apparently arose as part of a wider 15th-century European fashion for supposedly "Moorish" spectacle, which also left traces in Spanish and [[Italian folk dance]]. The means and chronology of the transmission of this fashion is now difficult to trace; the ''[[London Chronicle]]'' recorded "spangled Spanish dancers" performed an energetic dance before King [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]] at Christmas in 1494, but Heron's accounts also mention "{{lang|enm|pleying of the mourice dance}}" four days earlier, and the attestation of the English term from the mid-15th century establishes that there was a "Moorish dance" performed in England decades prior to 1494.<ref>{{cite book |last=Billington |first=Sandra |title=A Social History of the Fool |publisher=Harvester Press |year=1984 |pages=36, 37}}</ref><ref>{{cite OED|morris dance}}</ref>

An alternative derivation from the [[Latin]] {{lang|la|mōs}}, {{lang|la|mōris}} (custom and usage) has also been suggested.<ref>''The Pocket Oxford Dictionary'' (1913 / 1994) Oxford University Press, Oxford.</ref>

It has been suggested that the tradition of rural English dancers blackening their faces may be [[Black Act|a form of disguise]], or a reference either to the Moors or to miners;<ref>{{cite news |first=Lola |last=Okolosie |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/14/david-cameron-blacked-up-morris-dancers-nationalistic-englishness-black-people |title=Cameron and the morris dancers: a sign of our nationalistic mood |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=14 October 2014 |quote=Is the prime minister an expert in the complicated and obscure history of blacking up in Morris dancing? Perhaps he is, and this is why he felt comfortable posing for this picture, because he is sure that the tradition is either related to a pagan ritual to ward off evil spirits; a celebration of Moorish ancestry; the prevalence of mining in particular communities; or a disguise donned by poor men who went begging during the 1800s. }}</ref> the origins of the practice remain unclear and are the subject of [[blackface and Morris dancing|ongoing debate]]. In June 2020 the Joint Morris Organisation called for the use of black makeup to be discontinued, in response to the [[Black Lives Matter]] movement. Groups that used face paint changed to blue, green, or yellow and black stripes.<ref>{{Cite news |title=May Day Morris dancers wear blue makeup over racism concerns |website=[[BBC News Online]] |date=1 May 2021 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-56956071 }}</ref>