minuet (Eng.), menuet (Fr.), Menuett (Ger.), minuetto (It.). Dance in triple time, orig. as Fr. rustic dance and adapted by the court in the 17th cent. So called because of small, dainty step (menu = small) which is characteristic. Soon taken up by composers of art mus. from Lully onwards and became one of optional movts. of the suite. It also occurred in ovs. by Bach and Handel. In 18th cent. it was used in syms. (and other forms) by Wagenseil, Haydn, Mozart, and others, becoming the standard 3rd movt. until supplanted from Beethoven onwards by the scherzo. Normally in ABA form, the B section being a contrasting minuet called ‘trio’ because some Fr. composers wrote it in 3-part harmony or reduced the performers to 3. Note that, although Beethoven and other composers used it in their scores, the word menuetto does not exist in any language.

min·u·et / ˌminyoōˈet/ • n. a slow, stately ballroom dance for two in triple time, popular esp. in the 18th century. ∎  a piece of music in triple time in the style of such a dance, typically as a movement in a suite, sonata, or symphony and frequently coupled with a trio.• v. (-et·ed, -et·ing) [intr.] dance a minuet.

minuet French dance fashionable at the court of Louis XIV from 1650. Graceful and precise, it is danced by couples and played in triple time. It became popular as a dance in the 18th century and was a familiar movement in the suites of composers such as Handel and Mozart.

minuet XVII. — F., sb. use of adj. menuet small, fine, delicate, dim. of menu MINUTE2, but infl. in form and pronunc. by It. minuetto (- F.); see -ET.