Also 6 balliadera, 8 balliadere, 9 bayadeer. [F. bayadère, ad. Pg. bailadeira female dancer; cf. bailar to dance. The earlier forms were taken directly from the Portuguese.] A Hindoo dancing girl: the French name, occasionally used by English writers.
1598. W. Phillips, Linschoten’s Trav., 74 (Y.). The heathenish whore called Balliadera, who is a dancer.
1794. E. Moor, Narrat. Little’s Det., 356 (Y.). The name of balliadere, we never heard applied to the dancing girls.
1826. Heber, Journ. India (1828), II. xxviii. 282. The southern Bayadêre, who differ considerably from the nâch girls of northern India.
1835. Penny Cycl., IV. 62/2. The little arts and manners which form the accomplished bayadeer.
