The word csardas or czardas, which describes a type of traditional Hungarian dance and is also the name of my favorite piece of violin music, was borrowed into English in 1860 from Hungarian. That, in turn, was the adjectival form of the word csarda, meaning "tavern", because the type of music was frequently played in taverns. Csarda was borrowed from the Turkish noun cardak, which could refer to several different building types, and the Turkish word came from Persian cartaq, describing a type of arch with a pointed apex. More literally, it meant "four arch", coming from car, the word for "four" (from Proto-Indo-European ketwores), and taq, a word for "arch" which I can't find any more information on. According to Google NGrams, usage of the words csardas and czardas peaked in the 1890s, 1900s, and 1930s, and has declined significantly since.
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AUTHORHello! I'm Adam Aleksic. This year, I graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Government and Linguistics. There, I co-founded the Harvard Undergraduate Linguistics Society and wrote a thesis on Serbo-Croatian language policy, magna cum laude. In addition to etymology, I also really enjoy philosophy, trivia, vexillology, geography, board games, conlanging, art history, and law.
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