Burlesque went from Italian literary mockery to American striptease — and its root may be a Latin word for wool fiber, something fluffy and insubstantial.
A literary or dramatic work that ridicules through exaggerated imitation. In American English, also a type of variety show featuring striptease and comedy.
From French burlesque, from Italian burlesco, from burla (joke, mockery, trick), possibly from Vulgar Latin *burrula, diminutive of Late Latin burra (trifle, nonsense, wool fibers) Key roots: burla (Italian: "joke, trick, mockery"), burra (Late Latin: "trifle, nonsense").
Burlesque has led a double life in English. In literary criticism, it means comic exaggeration — Don Quixote is a burlesque of chivalric romances. In American entertainment, burlesque became a type of variety show featuring bawdy comedy, song, and striptease, reaching its peak in the 1920s–1940s. Gypsy Rose Lee, the famous burlesque performer, elevated striptease into an art form and coined