Brewer's: Quanquam

or Cancan. A slang manner of dancing quadrilles permitted in the public gardens of Paris, etc. The word cancan is a corruption of the Latin quamquam, a term applied to the exercises delivered by young theological students before the divinity professors. Hence it came to signify “babble,” “jargon,” anything crude, jejune, etc.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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