Also 7–9 corant, 8 currant, corrant, (couraunt). [a. F. courante in same sense, lit. ‘running (dance),’ from courant, -ante, pr. pple. of courir to run. In 17th c. usually corant, and CORANTO, q.v.; in 18th c. conformed to the French, and in this form alone now used as a musical term.]
1. A kind of dance formerly in vogue, characterized by a running or gliding step (as distinguished from leaping).
1586. Sir E. Hoby, trans. Cognet’s Truth & Lying, xi. 39. The Voltes, courantes, and vyolent daunses proceede from furie.
[1596. Davies, Orchestra, lxix. What shall I name those current travases, That on a triple dactyl foot do run Close by the ground, with sliding passages, Wherein that dancer greatest praise hath won, Which with best order can all orders shun: For everywhere he wantonly must range, And turn and wind with unexpected change.]
1597. Morley, Introd. Mus., 181. The volte rising and leaping, the courante trauising and running … The courant hath twise so much in a straine, as the English country daunce.
1676. Etheredge, Man of Mode, IV. i. 64. I am fit for Nothing but low dancing now, a Corant, a Boreè, Or a Minnuét.
a. 1701. Sedley, Grumbler, III. i. L. You would have a grave, serious dance, perhaps? G. Yes, a serious one…. L. Well, the courante, the bocane, the sarabande.
1746. Eliza Heywood, Female Spect. (1748), IV. 304. She … swam round the room, as if leading up a courant.
c. 1817. Hogg, Tales & Sk., V. 10. He dreamed of the reel, the jig,… and the corant.
attrib. 1667. Dryden, Maiden Queen, V. i. I can … walk with a courant slur.
2. Mus. The tune used for accompanying this dance, or a tune of similar construction; a piece of music in triple time, regularly following the Allemande as a movement of the Suite.
1597. [see 1].
1674. Playford, Skill Mus., Pref. 9. Our late solemn Musick is now justled out of esteem by the new Corants and Jigs of Foreigners.
1694. Holder, Treat. Harmony, ix. (1731), 151. The Kinds of Air … as, Almand, Corant, Jigg, &c.
1879. Prout, in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 410/2. As a component of the suite, the Courante follows the ALLEMANDE, with which in its character it is strongly contrasted.
3. dial. A running or careering about.
1795. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Lousiad, I. Wks. 1812, I. 176. All her wild Couraunts in fields of clover.
1865. R. Hunt, Pop. Rom. W. Eng., Ser. II. 244. By a courant with the boys, they mean a game of running romps.
