Hamlet vocabulary

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2. a folk dance type as well as the accompanying dance tune type. Of Scottish origin, reels are also an important part of the repertoire of the fiddle traditions of the British Isles and North America. In Scottish country dancing, the reel is one of the four traditional dances, the others being the jig, the strathspey and the waltz, and is also the name of a dance figure

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The reel is indigenous to Scotland. The earliest reference was in a witchcraft trial of 1590, where the accused was reported to have "daunced this reill or short dance." However, the form may go back to the Middle Ages. The name is probably of Old Norse origins, cognate with Suio-Gothic rulla, meaning "to whirl." This became Anglo-Saxon hreol and Gaelic ruidhle or ruidhleadh, which is the origin of the word now.