The merengue is widely regarded as a Caribbean dance genre and linked to no country in particular, but a collection of Caribbean countries since the mid-1800s. Created more than a century before the salsa dance, the meringue is taught today in conjunction with the salsa, rather than as a dance of its own.
Originally called the "upa," the merengue began in Puerto Rico in 1842. Labeled dangerous by political officials and outlawed, the Puero Rican merengue died out in less than 50 years.
During the late 1800s, after the death of the upa merengue, Columbia and Venezuela developed a version of the merengue that would not enjoy its peak of popularity until the 1930s.
Evolving in Haiti in the 1850s, the Haitian merengue, called the "mereng," is regarded as the oldest surviving form of merengue still performed today.
The word merengue is considered to be an evolved word from the french word "meringue" meaning light and fluffy. From this, the Haitian's evolved the term "mereng" and the Spanish "merengue."