Obs. Also 7 terra terra, (territerr), 8–9 terre à terre. [It. terra terra level with the ground, influenced by corresp. F. terre à terre, Sp. tierra á tierra.]
1. An artificial gait formerly taught to horses, resembling a low curvet.
[1611. Cotgr., Manege de terre à terre, a manage more low, and more quicke then the ordinarie gallop, or curuet.]
1614. Markham, Cheap Husb. (1623), 29. In this practise you teach him [the horse] perfectly three lessons together, that is the turne Terra Terra, the Incavalare, and the Chambetta.
a. 1648. Ld. Herbert, Life (1886), 74. The most useful aer, as the Frenchmen termn it, is territerr.
1730. Bailey (folio), Terra a terra … is a Series of low Leaps made by the Horse forward, bearing Sideways, and working upon two Trends.
2. Applied to a kind of dance. Also fig. and attrib. Without elevation of style.
[Fr. terre à terre ‘pas de danse qui s’exécute sans sauter,’ Roquefort, 1829.)
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Terra a terra … applied by the French to dancers, who cut no capers, nor scarce quit the ground. And hence it is also figuratively applied to authors, whose style and diction is low and creeping.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), V. 668/1. The grander sort of dancing, and terre à terre, is the best adapted to such dancers.
1888. Athenæum 6 Oct., 443/3. His very matter-of-factness, his terre-à-terre fidelity to his authorities.
1898. Daily News, 25 Oct., 2/3. It is so ‘true,’ and yet just removed from that terre-à-terre fact which distinguishes so much portraiture.
