The Grecian Bend was a dance move introduced to polite society in America just before the American Civil War. The "Bend" was considered very daring at the time.
The stoop or the silhouette created by the fashion in women's dress for corsets, crinolettes and bustles by 1869 was also called The Grecian Bend. Contemporary illustrations often show a woman with a large bustle and a very small parasol, bending forward.
The term was also given to those who suffered from decompression sickness, or "the bends", due to working in caissons during the building of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. The name was given because afflicted individuals characteristically arched their backs in the same manner as the then popular "Grecian Bend" fashion.
Read more about Grecian Bend: Appearance in Popular Music
Famous quotes containing the words grecian and/or bend:
“here in hell
We’re drinking tea from a Grecian Urn long after
Your Paphian Fanny let tubercles quell
Ethereal passion: I know it by your laughter!”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Moneys is your suit.
What should I say to you? Should I not say,
“Hath a dog money? Is it possible
A cur can lend three thousand ducats?” Or
Shall I bend low and in a bondman’s key,
With bated breath and whispering humbleness,
Say this:
“Fair sir, you spat on me on Wednesday last,
You spurned me such a day, another time
You called me dog; and for these courtesies
I’ll lend you thus much moneys?””
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)