? Also 7 stravetspy. [f. the Sc. place-name Strathspey (= the strath of the river Spey).
If the form stravetspy (quot. a. 1653) be genuine and belong to this word, the mod. form would seem to be due to popular etymology.]
a. A lively dance or reel for two dancers. b. The music or tune (usually in common time) used to accompany this dance. Also † strathspey minuet.
a. 1653. Z. Boyd, John Baptist, in G. Neil, Z. Boyd’s Flowers of Zion (1832), p. xxx. To please the King, the Morrice dance I will; Stravetspy, and after, last of all, The Drunken Dance I’le dance within that hall.
1756. Mrs. Calderwood, in Coltness Collect. (Maitl. Club), 195. Lady Hellen and Lord Garless danced a strathspey minuet.
1791. Burns, Tam o’ Shanter, 117. Nae cotillion brent-new frae France, But horn-pipes, jigs, strathspeys, and reels, Put life and mettle in their heels.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., II. xi. Nor would my footsteps spring more gay In courtly dance than blithe strathspey. Ibid. (1818), Rob Roy, xxii. He … sate himself down on the oak table, and whistled a strathspey.
1882. J. F. S. Gordon, Shaw’s Hist. Moray, I. 239. He was one of the best violinists in the north and excelled in Strathspeys.
