roundelay

[ roun-dl-ey ]

/ ˈraʊn dlˌeɪ /

a song in which a phrase, line, or the like, is continually repeated.

the music for such a song.

a dance in a circle; round dance.

Origin of roundelay

1565–75; alteration (influenced by lay⁴) of Middle French rondelet, diminutive of rondel roundel

Voices rippled from chantey to roundelay and back to chantey again.

Strange Stories of the Great Valley |Abbie Johnston Grosvenor
Keats calls the piece a roundelay,—a form which it only so far resembles that its opening measures are repeated at the close.

Keats |Sidney Colvin
While words of congratulation were passing from mouth to mouth, the blow descended, and “turned to groans their roundelay.”

Tales from "Blackwood," Volume 2 |Various
And by night about the crackling camp fire our happy voices, all united, are uplifted in song and roundelay.

Fibble, D. D. |Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb

During the day it gets on a neighboring brush or tree and sings its roundelay of song for hours at a time.

Birds and all Nature, Vol. IV, No. 1, July 1898 |Various

roundelay

/ (ˈraʊndɪˌleɪ) /

Also called: roundel a slow medieval dance performed in a circle

a song in which a line or phrase is repeated as a refrain

C16: from Old French rondelet a little rondel, from rondel; also influenced by lay 4