The words of tango
The dance floor's words and the lunfardo in the lyrics, each with where it is cited.
A word of tango
Worker
Heard in 2 lyrics
Hear it said · 0:42Musical Calles de tango, Mario Morales entrevista por Elena Fernandez de Barcelonaa
The dance
Adornments (adornos) are decorations added to the dance that need not be led or marked.
Lunfardo
Affectionate form of address between sweethearts
Lunfardo
Attention!
Lunfardo
Idle person, one without a trade
b
Lunfardo
Boss, owner (dated)
Lunfardo
Baggage
Lunfardo
A swindle faking a roll of banknotes, only the outer ones genuine
The music
The bandoneón is a free-reed bellows instrument of the concertina family, rectangular with a square section
Lunfardo
One who knows the roads, paths and clearings in the hills and rivers
Lunfardo
Din, commotion
The dance
No cited meaning yet.
Lunfardo
Showgirl
Lunfardo
Prolonged uproar, ruckus
Lunfardo
Infatuation, a pet obsession
The dance
No cited meaning yet.
Lunfardo
Disco, club, nightclub
Lunfardo
Revolver (dated)
Lunfardo
Urban dwelling, especially a modest flat or room
c
The dance
Cabeceo is a nonverbal invitation to dance that is accepted with a nod or rejected by looking away.
The cabeceo, tanda and cortina: milonga codes
The dance
A cortina is a short piece of music, 20–60 seconds, played between tandas at a milonga to mark the end of a tanda
Lunfardo
An arrant, incorrigible rogue
Lunfardo
To catch on, to grasp
Lunfardo
Lunfardo
Variant of cafiolo (pimp)
Lunfardo
Refined, dapper, conceited man; exaggeratedly elegant
The dance
No cited meaning yet.
The dance
Candombe is an Afro-Latin American cultural expression centred on drumming, significant in Uruguay and recognised by UNESCO as intangible heritage
Lunfardo
A social dance
Lunfardo
A folding bed with a scissor frame
Lunfardo
Dude, guy
Lunfardo
The act or result of chamuyar (smooth talk)
Lunfardo
Lunfardo
Hey, yo (a form of address)
Lunfardo
To tell gossip
Lunfardo
A tiny amount of money
Lunfardo
A woman of loose or irregular life
Lunfardo
Lacking intelligence or worldly experience, easily fooled
Lunfardo
Thief
Lunfardo
Person who regularly searches public rubbish bins and uses part of what they find
The dance
A closed position in which leader and follower stand facing each other chest to chest in full or partial body contact.
The dance
Traditional rules dictate how dancers choose their dancing partners and navigate the floor.
The dance
The colgada is an off-axis position of the couple, where the centre of balance moves outside one's body.
Lunfardo
To talk or act so as to make others feel inferior and show oneself superior
Lunfardo
A man who imitates the compadrito but lacks his culture and manners
The dance
An occasion on which dancers are judged, usually with several couples on the floor at once. At the Mundial it is one Ronda, however many videos filmed it.
How Tangopedia uses the wordSee: The Mundial
Lunfardo
Appetizer
The dance
El corte y la quebrada son rasgos característicos del baile de tango, junto con el abrazo estrecho y la caminata.
The dance
A cortina is a short piece of music played between tandas at a milonga to signal that the tanda has ended.
Lunfardo
Flat or room used for clandestine love meetings
The dance
Any two people who danced a Performance together, even if only once.
How Tangopedia uses the wordSee: Chicho Frumboli and Juana Sepúlveda
The dance
No cited meaning yet.
d
The dance
One song within a Performance, in its place in the order: what people mean by “which song did you like?”. Counts of Dances say what was performed and filmed, not what is played at milongas.
How Tangopedia uses the wordSee: La Cumparsita's Dances
Día Nacional del Tango (11 December)
National Tango Day is celebrated on 11 December each year in Argentina and on 5 October in Uruguay
e
One year of an Event.
How Tangopedia uses the wordSee: The Mundial in 2019
The dance
Argentine tango is danced in an embrace that can vary from very open (arm's length) to very closed (chest to chest).
Lunfardo
Conceited, pretentious
Lunfardo
To fool, deceive, trick
The dance
No cited meaning yet.
A cited span used to navigate tango's history, with approximate boundaries when the sources warrant them. It does not give a date to an undated recording, event or video.
How Tangopedia uses the wordSee: The Golden Age
Estilo milonguero (close embrace)
The dance
The milonguero style has a close embrace, small steps and syncopated footwork, based on the crowded downtown clubs of the 1950s
A festival, competition or milonga series that recurs under one name, such as the Mundial.
How Tangopedia uses the wordSee: Every event
f
Lunfardo
Large dagger, usually silver-handled, used by the countryman for work and as a fighting weapon
Lunfardo
Ruined, aged, withered, worn out, down on one's luck
Lunfardo
Spree, a party with some abandon
Lunfardo
A cut or wound on the face
Lunfardo
Insisting on being in fashion
Lunfardo
Hat (obsolete)
g
The dance
In Argentine tango a gancho is a sharp move in which a dancer hooks a leg around the partner's leg.
Lunfardo
Boy, a young person
Lunfardo
A seductive, libertine man
Lunfardo
Naive, easily fooled
Lunfardo
An act or attitude of a gil (a gullible person)
The dance
Vuelta, parcial o completa, sobre uno mismo.
Lunfardo
Someone at an auction who raises prices for the auctioneer with fake bids
Lunfardo
Money
Lunfardo
Foolish, simple
h
The music
The habanera is a musical genre that originated in Cuba in the first half of the 19th century
j
Lunfardo
A person of high society
l
Lunfardo
Worker
Lunfardo
Workplace; work
The dance
No cited meaning yet.
The dance
No cited meaning yet.
Lunfardo
Tramp, vagabond
The dance
No cited meaning yet.
Lunfardo
Lunfardo is a slang that originated and developed in the Río de la Plata, in Buenos Aires and Montevideo
m
Lunfardo
The police recording a person's details (dated)
Lunfardo
To understand
Lunfardo
A person or animal fled from the law into the wilds
Lunfardo
A member of La Mazorca, the para-police group founded by Juan Manuel de Rosas to persecute opponents
Lunfardo
A woman thief who specialises in shoplifting without violence
Lunfardo
Tacky, gaudy
Lunfardo
Passionate, obsessive love, especially fleeting
The dance
Milonga dance is dancing to milonga music.
The dance
A milonga is an event where Argentine tango is danced; the music is mainly tango, vals and milonga
The music
The milonga is a folk music genre of the Río de la Plata, typical of Argentina, Uruguay and Rio Grande do Sul
Lunfardo
A woman hired to be asked to dance at milongas
Lunfardo
A person who frequents popular dance events
Lunfardo
Variant of mina (woman)
Lunfardo
A man, usually older, who pays generously for a woman's favours (dated)
The dance
No cited meaning yet.
Lunfardo
To eat voraciously
Lunfardo
Bad luck
The dance
No cited meaning yet.
o
The dance
No cited meaning yet.
The dance
No cited meaning yet.
The dance
An embrace with space between the lead's and the follow's bodies, as opposed to the close embrace where they are chest to chest.
The dance
El tango orillero es el modo inicial de bailar el tango, también llamado canyengue o arrabalero.
The music
In Argentina and Uruguay the term orquesta típica became tied to tango
Lunfardo
Naive; a sucker
p
Lunfardo
Girl, young woman
Lunfardo
Simpleton, fool (derogatory, dated)
Lunfardo
A woman of loose or irregular life
Lunfardo
Young, beautiful woman (dated)
The dance
No cited meaning yet.
The dance
A Couple who perform together again and again.
How Tangopedia uses the wordSee: Chicho Frumboli and Juana Sepúlveda
Lunfardo
A gang with antisocial or criminal behaviour, especially of urban youths
Lunfardo
Belonging to a patota (gang)
Lunfardo
Nonsense, dumb talk or act
The music
The payada is a poetic-musical art in which the payador improvises a rhymed recital accompanied by a guitar
Lunfardo
A popular troubadour, a folk singer-poet
Lunfardo
Irresponsible, shameless
Lunfardo
Woman (dated)
The dance
A Couple dancing a set of one to eight songs in order before an audience, at a festival, a weekly milonga or a stage show. It is one Performance however many channels filmed it.
How Tangopedia uses the wordSee: Chicho Frumboli and Juana Sepúlveda
Lunfardo
A dance of Genoese immigrants in La Boca, Buenos Aires, in the 19th century
The music
A cited span of an orchestra's recording career with its line-up, such as D'Arienzo–Echagüe 1938–40.
How Tangopedia uses the wordSee: Every orchestra's periods
Lunfardo
Upper-class, or following upper-class fashions (obsolete)
Lunfardo
Crazy
Lunfardo
Chick, lass (colloquial)
Lunfardo
Kid, young person
Lunfardo
A group of pibes (kids)
Lunfardo
Garment, clothing (slang)
Lunfardo
Good-looking
Lunfardo
Clever, smart
The dance
The posture and axis a couple keep while walking; a quebrada is a pose that deliberately breaks it.
The dance
A práctica is an informal event for practising Argentine tango.
Lunfardo
The country trader who keeps a pulpería (general store and bar)
Lunfardo
The act of pickpocketing
Lunfardo
Child (dated)
q
Lunfardo
Exaggerated in showing affection
r
Lunfardo
Short for atorrante (idler)
The music
The company that issued a Release: Victor, Odeon, Music Hall.
How Tangopedia uses the wordSee: Every record label
The music
One dated take of a Rendition: D'Arienzo's 1951 La Cumparsita. Only the audio or a person proves which take it is.
How Tangopedia uses the wordSee: D'Arienzo's La Cumparsita, 1951
The music
One physical issue of music as a collector holds it: a 78 rpm single, an EP, an LP or a CD, issued by a Record label under a catalogue number. A reissue is a Release of its own.
How Tangopedia uses the wordSee: Victor's records by year
The music
A Song as one orchestra plays it, year unknown: La Cumparsita by D'Arienzo. A different singer does not make a new Rendition.
How Tangopedia uses the wordSee: Every recording of La Cumparsita
The dance
The ronda is the line of dance in Argentine tango.
s
The dance
No cited meaning yet.
The dance
The salida is the beginning part of a figure, its starting-point.
The dance
No cited meaning yet.
The music
A sexteto típico has two bandoneons, two violins, piano and double bass; Francisco Canaro shaped one in Buenos Aires
The music
One title on a Release, in its place: A, B, or A3 on an LP.
How Tangopedia uses the wordSee: Victor's records by year
The dance
People dancing at a milonga for themselves, not for an audience.
How Tangopedia uses the wordSee: The milongas
The music
A piece of music as people name it, whoever plays it: La Cumparsita.
How Tangopedia uses the wordSee: La Cumparsita
Lunfardo
Of an animal, especially a horse: useless, old or ill-behaved
t
Lunfardo
A valiant and handsome man
The dance
A tanda is a turn of dancing at a milonga, and by extension the set of pieces of music played for it.
Tango is a music genre and dance characteristic of the Río de la Plata region, mainly Buenos Aires and Montevideo
The music
Tango canción is a lyrical-musical composition whose words answer to the rhythmic and emotional character of tango music and dance
The dance
El estilo que moderó los aspectos más provocativos recibió el nombre de tango de salón o tango liso.
The dance
Tango escenario is tango danced by professionals for show, with bolder choreography than tango de salón or canyengue accept
The dance
Nuevo tango is a form of music adding new elements to traditional tango, and an evolution of tango dance that began in the 1980s
Lunfardo
An Italian person (slang)
Lunfardo
Same as atorrante (obsolete)
Lunfardo
To bet on games of chance or horse races
The dance
No cited meaning yet.
v
Lunfardo
Money, especially cash (obsolete)
Lunfardo
To spy on, to watch
The dance
The tango of the suburban family clubs, such as Villa Urquiza, emphasizes long elegant steps and complex figures
The dance
Volcada is one of the off-axis positions, with apile, apilado, carpa and colgada.
w
The dance
Caminada: a beginner combination of caminar (walk), cross and ochos.
The music
A Song as it was written, with its credits: who composed it, who wrote its words, its year and its premiere. The site still says “song”.
How Tangopedia uses the wordSee: Who wrote La Cumparsita
y
Lunfardo
A usually illegal deal agreed between several people
Lunfardo
Streak of bad luck superstitiously tied to a person