Science, ideas & the arts
polka
A Bohemian dance that swept Prague, Paris and London in the 1830s–40s; its Czech name means either 'Polish woman' or 'half-step', and scholars still argue which. Polkamania gave English 'polka dot', took the dance to Finland and Russia, and carried it with Czech and German settlers to Texas and Mexico, where it lives on in norteño music.
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