sixteensome
(sɪkˈstiːnsəm)
[f. sixteen a. + -some2.]
A group of sixteen persons. Usu. attrib. in sixteensome reel, a Scottish dance performed in sets of sixteen persons. Also absol.
| 1926 [see eightsome a.]. 1938 St. Andrews Citizen 13 Aug. 9 He is much in request to teach..eightsomes, sixteensomes, and thirty-twosomes. 1954 H. A. Thurston Scotland's Dances 51 The same process can be applied to the eightsome reel: the result is the double eightsome or sixteensome reel. 1964 J. & T. Flett Trad. Dancing i. 18 Mr Reid taught..the Eightsome Reel, and the Sixteensome Reel. 1979 Harper's & Queen July 157/3 They led the sixteensome of Atholl Highlanders down the stairs two by two. |