 In Edward Phillips's "The New World of English Words", first published in 1658, the term "morisco" was referenced as both "a Moor" and "the Morris dance, as it were the Moorish dance", while John Bullokar defined it in 1695 as "a certain dance used among the Moors; whence our Morris dance".It is unclear how the dance came by this name, "unless in reference to fantastic dancing or costumes", i.e.the deliberately "exotic" flavour of the performance.