Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PA-VAN', n. [Sp. pavana, from pavon, L. pavo, a peacock.]

A grave dance among the Spaniards. In this dance, the performers make a kind of wheel before each other, the gentlemen dancing with cap and sword, princes with long robes, and the ladies with long trails; the motions resembling the stately steps of the peacock. – Encyc. Sp. Dict. Shak.