chautauqua

name

1. A town and lake resort community in Chautauqua County, New York.

noun

1. (historical)A kind of travelling tent-show which used to move across America featuring popular talks.

   “What is in mind is a sort of Chautauqua—that's the only name I can think of for it—like the traveling tent-show Chautauquas that used to move across America, this America, the one that we are now in, an old-time series of popular talks intended to edify and entertain, improve the mind and bring culture and enlightenment to the ears and thoughts of the hearer.”

2. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of Chautauqua.

   “As a boy, Sandburg was thrilled by the circus, the chautauqua, the minstrel show, the theater.”