vaude·ville
n.
1. Stage entertainment offering a variety of short acts such as slapstick turns, song-and-dance routines, and juggling performances.
2. A theatrical performance of this kind; a variety show.
3. A light comic play that often includes songs, pantomime, and dances.
4. A popular, often satirical song.
[French, alteration of Old French vaudevire, occasional or topical light popular song, possibly short for chanson du Vau de Vire, song of Vau de Vire, a valley of northwest France, or perhaps dialectal vauder, to go + virer, to turn]
\Vaude"ville\, n. [F., fr. Vau-de-vire, a village in Normandy, where Olivier Basselin, at the end of the 14th century, composed such songs.] [Written also vaudevil.] 1. A kind of song of a lively character, frequently embodying a satire on some person or event, sung to a familiar air in couplets with a refrain; a street song; a topical song.
2. A theatrical piece, usually a comedy, the dialogue of which is intermingled with light or satirical songs, set to familiar airs.
The early vaudeville, which is the forerunner of the opera bouffe, was light, graceful, and piquant. --Johnson's Cyc.