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In 15th-century France there was a fashion for songs from the valley of the Vire, in the Calvados region of Normandy (particularly popular, apparently, were the satirical songs composed by a local fuller, Olivier Basselin). The geographic connection had been lost by the time English acquired the word, and the element -vire had been replaced with -ville "town." The semantic transition from "popular song" to "light theatrical entertainment" is not recorded until the early 19th century.
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