OPERA BURLESCA

Speranza

burlesque (n.)


1660s, "derisive imitation, grotesque parody".

From French "burlesque" (16c.).

From Italian "burlesco".

From "burla", joke, fun, mockery.

Possibly ultimately from Late Latin "burra", trifle, nonsense, lit. "flock of wool."

Modern sense of "variety show featuring striptease" is American English, 1870.

Originally (1857) "the sketches at the end of minstrel shows."

As a verb, from 1670s.

cfr. Arne, "The opera of operas: an opera" -- an early English burlesque.