A mazurka is a lively traditional dance from Poland, or the music written for that dance. The step is in triple time — you can count 1-2-3, 1-2-3 — but it feels quicker and more snapping than a waltz, with a strong accent that often sits on the second or third beat, not a gentle first beat. People danced it in villages in Mazowsze (Mazovia, an old cultural region in east-central Poland); the people from there were called Masurians, and Polish mazurek means “dance of the Masurian”. The word came into English through German Mazurka and Russian мазурка (mazúrka). Though actually, many students first meet it not on a dance floor but in a piano book: Chopin wrote a great many mazurkas, so the word is as much a music title as a folk dance. You might also hear a mazurka at a folk festival. It is a fairly special-interest word — everyday English uses dance, or names like waltz and polka, more often.

馬祖卡（波蘭傳統舞，也指這種舞的音樂）