LAMBADA

noun (Lifestyle and Leisure) A fast and erotic dance of Brazilian origin, in which couples dance with their stomachs touching each other; also, the rhythmic music to which it is danced. Etymology: A Brazilian Portuguese word which literally means 'a beating, a lashing'. History and Usage: The lambada has been danced in Brazil for many years, but was suddenly taken up as a fashion in North and Central America in the late eighties, perhaps in response to the craze for 'dirty dancing' (after the film of the same title, 1987). Lambada became the focus of considerable media hype during 1989 and 1990, and was included in the title of a number of films and of a disc which reached the top of the charts. This media interest caused it to be popularized in the UK and Australia as well. A verb lambada also exists; so striking was the promotion and 'packaging' of the dance for the Western market that the whole process of taking world or ethnic culture and marketing it in the West has been referred to as lambadazation. We were dancing the lambada face to face and sort of going up and down against each other. Sun 11 Apr. 1990, p. 3 First it was disco, then dirty, then lambada--whatever way you want to kick up your heels. Delaware Today July 1990, p. 46