dance [ME] The word dance stepped into English from French in the Middle Ages. The dance of death [LME] was a medieval image in which Death led all types of people to the grave, emphasizing that everyone was equally faced with death. It was also known under its French name danse *macabre. The unlucky person who had to dance attendance on someone [E16th] was kept waiting in an antechamber before being called in to speak to the elevated personage they had come to see. There they would no doubt fidget and kick their heels, as if dancing.