The language of tango and the street
Lunfardo Dictionary
A dictionary for reading tango lyrics and understanding Buenos Aires speech. Words you will not find in a standard Spanish dictionary, explained from life in the city.
114 words
- afanarTo steal
- amurarTo abandon, to leave behind — tango's most famous verb of he
- apoliyarTo sleep, in classic lunfardo still alive today
- arrabalThe city's edge — mud streets, cobblestones, love and knives
- atorranteA loafer, a good-for-nothing, once a vagrant
- bacánA man of means, a big spender — often the wealthy keeper of
- bancarTo back someone, to put up with, to hold on
- bardoTrouble or a scene
- berretínAn obsession, a cherished whim, a dream you can't shake — th
- birraBeer, straight from Italian
- bolicheA nightclub today; in older usage a small bar or corner stor
- boludearTo laze around, kill time, mess about
- boludoLiterally 'fool', but between friends it becomes an affectio
- bondiThe city bus
- bulínA bachelor's little room, a rendezvous flat — key stage scen
- cacharTo catch, to tease, to grasp
- cambalacheA junk shop where everything mixes — and since the 1934 tang
- canaThe police, or jail: en cana means locked up
- canyengueThe oldest flavor of tango dancing and playing: knees soft,
- capoA master, the boss of a craft — from Italian capo
- caretaLiterally a mask: a phony, a hypocrite
- chabónA guy, that dude
- chamuyarTo sweet-talk
- chamuyoSmooth talk, sweet nothings, a well-spun line
- chantaA bluffer, all talk and no delivery
- cheThe all-purpose Argentine 'hey'
- chetoPosh, upscale — for people, bars or neighborhoods, with envy
- chorroA thief
- coimaA bribe
- compadritoThe swaggering street dandy of 1900s Buenos Aires — knife, v
- copadoCool, likable — works for people and places alike
- cotorroAnother word for the bachelor's room, possibly from the chat
- curroA racket, an easy-money scheme with a shady side
- daleOK, sure, come on
- de unaInstantly yes, absolutely
- despeloteA shambles or uproar, close to quilombo but leaning toward p
- engrupirTo dupe with fine words, to take in
- escabiarTo drink alcohol
- escabioBooze, drinking
- fachaLooks, appearance — from Italian faccia
- facheroGood-looking or showing off about it — seventy percent compl
- farraA spree, a night of revelry — joda's classic ancestor, scent
- fasoA cigarette — pucho's younger-sounding twin.
- fecaCoffee — café in vesre, syllables reversed
- fiacaSweet laziness, zero motivation
- firuleteAn ornamental flourish in the dance, and by extension any em
- flacoLiterally 'skinny', actually a body-type-agnostic 'man' or '
- fueyeThe bandoneon's nickname — 'bellows' (fuelle) in barrio pron
- funyiA hat, especially the fedora — from Italian fungo, mushroom,
- gambaOne hundred pesos; also 'leg' from Italian, and hacer la gam
- garcaA backstabber, someone who screws people over
- garparTo pay — pagar in vesre
- gauchadaA generous favor, in the spirit of the gaucho
- genioGenius — and the everyday 'you're the best!'
- gilA sucker, the one who gets fooled
- gotánTango itself, in vesre — syllables reversed
- grosoGreat, impressive, a big deal
- gualichoA spell or love charm, from an indigenous word
- guitaMoney
- jodaA party or a joke
- junarTo eye, to see through, to know someone's face
- laburarTo work, the verb form of laburo
- laburoWork or a job
- lucaOne thousand pesos
- lunfardoThe slang of Buenos Aires
- macanudoSplendid, good-natured
- malandraA small-time crook, feared and half-admired
- malevoThe tough of the outskirts, quick to fight and slow to fear
- mangoOne peso, and by extension money
- manyarTo eat, and to understand or see through — from Italian mang
- matearTo share mate — not just drinking it, but the whole ritual o
- milongaThree meanings in one word: a fast 2/4 musical genre older t
- milongueroA dancer who lives the milongas — not a hobbyist but a regul
- milonguitaAn archetype born in 1920s lyrics: the neighborhood girl dra
- minaA woman
- mishiaduraHard-up poverty, engraved in Depression-era lyrics — not a s
- mistongoHumble, threadbare — not mere poverty but the melancholy bea
- morfarTo eat, heartily
- morfiFood, grub — the noun of morfar
- mufaA bad mood, or a jinx
- naifaA young woman in classic lunfardo — now lyric-only vocabular
- ni ahíNo way, not even close — the exact opposite of de una
- ñoquiGnocchi — and a ghost employee who only shows up for the pay
- ondaVibe
- otarioA dupe, an easy mark — the more classical sibling of gil, a
- paloOne million pesos
- papusaA stunning beauty, beloved by 1920s lyricists
- pebetaA young neighborhood girl — the classic form behind today's
- pedoForget the literal meaning — this is a phrase factory: en pe
- percantaA woman, a lover, in classic lunfardo — immortalized as the
- pibeA kid or young guy (piba for a girl)
- pilchaClothes, especially your best outfit
- piolaSmart and easygoing at once
- porteñoA person from Buenos Aires — literally 'of the port'
- postaFor real, no kidding
- previaThe pregame at someone's place before going out — the offici
- puchoA cigarette or its butt, from Quechua for 'leftover'
- pungaA pickpocket or the craft of picking pockets
- purreteA little kid, in classic affectionate lunfardo — preserved i
- quilomboA mess, total chaos
- reSuper, totally
- reoStreetwise and unpolished in an endearing way
- subteThe Buenos Aires subway, short for subterráneo
- tamangoShoes, in classic lunfardo — from worn-out boots to dancing
- tangueroAnyone who loves tango — dancer, listener or musician
- timbaGambling, the gaming table — cards and dice after midnight
- tranquiChill, relaxed — short for tranquilo
- truchoFake, bogus, knock-off
- versearTo spin lines, to feed someone fiction
- vesreSyllable-reversal wordplay, itself the reversed form of revé
- vivezaCunning, sharpness
- yetaBad luck, the evil eye — from Italian iettatura
- zafarTo get out of it, to scrape by
- zarpadoOver the top, insane — in awe or in excess