Obs. exc. Hist. Also 6–7 couranto, chora(u)nto, 7 corranto, caranto, -onto, carranto, -ta, 7–8 curranto. [Ultimately from F. courante lit. ‘running (dance)’; either a modification of the French word itself, assimilated to words of It. and Sp. origin in -o (cf. CORANTO2), or immediately from It. coranta, corranta ‘a kinde of French dance’ (Florio), an It. adaptation of the French. The French form was itself adopted somewhat later: see COURANTE.]
1. A kind of dance; the same as COURANTE.
1564. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 313. Paid to Mr. Attkynson for stayynge the choraunto … xxs.
1598. E. Gilpin, Skial. (1878), 26. Excuse This quick Couranto of my merry Muse.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., III. v. 33. They bid vs to the English Dancing-Schooles, And teach Lauolta’s high, and swift Carranto’s.
1611. Cotgr., Courante, a Curranto.
1651. Ogilby, Æsop (1665), 136. How stately move in a Coranto.
1692. J. Salter, Triumphs Jesus, 24. The skipping Mountains in Choranto dance.
1696. trans. Dumont’s Voy. Levant, 284. A sort of Country-Dance or Couranto, danc’d by Pairs.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 384. He … suffered the fair owner to ransom the rest by dancing a coranto with him on the heath.
1874. Green, Short Hist., vii. 363.
2. A tune in triple time used for accompanying this dance; = COURANTE 2.
1597. Morley, Introd. Mus. (1608), 120. A Carranta plaide in the new proportions by them lately found out.
1668. Shadwell, Sullen Lovers, I. i. Torments me with a damn’d Coranto, as he calls it, upon his violin.
1776. Sir J. Hawkins, Hist. Music, IV. III. i. 387. The Coranto … is a melody or air consisting of three crotchets in a bar, but moving by quavers.
3. attrib., as coranto movement, pace (the latter also transf. = ‘a very swift pace’).
1602. Marston, Ant. & Mel., II. Wks. 1856, I. 21. Running a caranto pase.
a. 1627. Middleton, More Dissemblers, V. i. (1657), 68 (N.). But away rid I Sir, put my horse to a caranto pace.
1782. Mason, Collect. Anthems, xxxvi. I cannot be persuaded that he … ever admitted Coranto or Gavot movements.
