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TribalDancer · 08-31-2006, 06:30 PM

Well, here is my personal metamorphosis of the use of the word.

I once heard the argument that it is "tap dance" and "ballet dance", not "tapdance" and "balletdance", and therefore, it is more appropriate to use it as two words. I stuck with that until about 2 years ago, when someone aptly pointed out that "tap" and "ballet" modify the word "dance"; but can also used on their own--if I said "I take a tap class", everyone knows what I mean.

But "belly" does not stand on its own. If I said, "Whew! That was a very exhausting belly class!" people would look at me funny. The only way it makes sense is when it is together with the word dance, thus it makes more sense to make it one word: bellydance.

And that is my theory on it at this time.

08-31-2006, 06:30 PM	#3 (permalink)
TribalDancer Moderator Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 313	Metamorphosis of language Well, here is my personal metamorphosis of the use of the word. I once heard the argument that it is "tap dance" and "ballet dance", not "tapdance" and "balletdance", and therefore, it is more appropriate to use it as two words. I stuck with that until about 2 years ago, when someone aptly pointed out that "tap" and "ballet" modify the word "dance"; but can also used on their own--if I said "I take a tap class", everyone knows what I mean. But "belly" does not stand on its own. If I said, "Whew! That was a very exhausting belly class!" people would look at me funny. The only way it makes sense is when it is together with the word dance, thus it makes more sense to make it one word: bellydance. And that is my theory on it at this time.