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bu·to or bu·toh

(btō)

A dance form developed in postwar Japan which rejects Eastern and Western dance conventions, expressing intense emotions through slow, controlled, and sometimes distorted movements.

[Japanese butō, short for (ankoku) butō, dance (of darkness) : bu, dance (from Middle Chinese ᶹuə̆´) + tō, to step on, stamp, tread (from Middle Chinese dap), probably also influenced by tō, to stamp on, tread (from Middle Chinese *t^ɦaw).]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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