| Phrase | L unfardo | Our Best Actual Translation |
| Anda cagar! | Go shit! | Go fuck yourself! |
| Anda cagar forro! | Go shit condom! | Go fuck yourself asshole! |
| No seas forro! | Don’t be condom! | Don’t be an asshole!! |
| Hijo de mil puta! | Son of a thousand whores! | You god damn son of a bitch! |
| Anda a la concha de tu madre! | Go to your mother’s cunt | Go fuck your mother! |
| La puta que te parió! | The whore that gave birth to you | Fuck you and your mom’s a ho! |
| Que boludo! | What a slow witted individual! | What a dumb ass! |
| Sos un cagón! | You’re a big shitter! | You chickenshit! |
mi Dampira
Lunfardo El lunfardo es el dialecto utilizado en la mayoría de
los tangos para referirse a diferentes cosas en términos
especiales. El Lunfardo puede ser considerado como el
idioma del tango argentino.
El lunfardo es el dialecto utilizado en la mayoría de
los tangos para referirse a diferentes cosas en términos especiales. El Lunfardo puede ser considerado como el idioma del tango argentino.  |
A la gurda: Shelter, refuge. Abacanado: Presumptuous. Abanicar: Police officer. Abanicarse: To leave. Abanico: Informer / Police officer. Abaragar: To stop with the knife an opponent’s attack. Abatatado: Afraid, scared. Abatatarse: To get frightened. Ablandado: Afraid, scared / Bribed. Ablandar: To bribe. Ablandarse: To get frightened. Abocado: Unthinking, impetuous. Abocarse: To hurry into something. Abombado: Foolish, stupid. Abotonado: Married. Abotonarse: To get married. Abrancar: To catch. Abrícola: Absent-minded. Abriles: Years. Abrir cancha: To clear a fight’s place after it finished. Abrirse: To deviate, separate. Abrochado: Married. Academia: Places for dancing, having drinks and meeting women. Acamala: To save. Acamalador: Stingy, mean. Acamalar: To hoard up / To protect / To catch / To save by being mean. Acamalarse: To engage in concubinage. Acanalar: To hurt somebody with a white weapon. Aceitado: Bribed. Aceitar los patines: To prostitute someone else. Aceitar: To bribe. Aceite, dar el: To fire. Aceite, tomarse el: To leave quickly. Aceite: Bribe. Aceitosa: Head. Aceitunas, cambiar el agua de las: To urinate. Aceitunas, dar las: To fire. Aceitunas, tomarse las: To leave quickly. Achacado: Unhealthy, sickly. Achacador: Malefactor. Achaco: Robbery. Achicar: To daunt. Achuchado: Scared. Achumado: Drunk. Achumarse: To get drunk. Achurar: To murder. Acomodado: Recommended. Acomodar: To recommend, to influence / To hit. Acomodo: Favourable influence. Acoyarado: Married. Acoyarse: To get married. Acuñado: Recommended Acuñar: To recommend, to favour. Adición: Restaurant bill. Adobado: Drunk. Adobarse: To get drunk. Adornado: Bribed. Adorno: Bribe. Afanancio: Thief. Afano: Robbery. Afiambrar: To kill. Afiambrado: Murdered. Afilador: Courtier. Afilar: To court somebody. Aflojar: To accuse. Afrecho: Sexual appetite. Afrechudo: Lustful. Africar: To hand in strongly. Agachada: Disloyalty, vile act. Agarrada: Quarrel. Agayas, de: Brave Agayudo: Brave Agrampar: To capture, to seize. Agrandado: Ostentatious. Aguantiñar: To deal with. Águila / Aguilero: Indigent. Ainenti: Little stones. (Children game) Al bardo: To steal without a predetermined plan. Al pucho: Immediately. Alacrán: Gossipy. Alacranear: To gossip. Alacransar: To speak badly. Alambrada: Guitar. Alca: Gossipmonger Alcachofa: Gossipmonger. Alcagüetería: Accusation. Alcancía: Jail Alcaucil: Gossipmonger. Alce: Opportunity, chance / Occasion. Alfajía: Tall, high. Alfiler: White weapon. Aliviar: To rob, to steal. Almanaques: Age, years. Alpedología: To Elvis Alpedología about a subject without having the necessary knowledge. Alpiste: Alcoholic drink. Alpistería: Bar, liquor store. Alpistero: Drunk. Altiyero: Excellent. Altityo: Head. Alumbrante: Match. Alumbrar: To provide with money. Alzado: Lustful. Alzarse: To leave. Amachimbrado: In concubinage. Amargo: Coward. Amarrete: Mean, miser. Amarretear: To be mean with money. Amarretismo: Meanness. Amarro: Stingy, mean. Amarrocador: Stingy, mean. Amarrocar: To hoard. Amarrete: Stingy, mean. Amasijado: Murdered, beaten. Amasijar: To murder, to beat. Amasijo: Punishment. Ambidextro: A pederast who is both active and passive. Ambiguo: Effeminate man. Amueblada: An apartment or a hotel for having sex. Amurado: Abandoned. Amuro: Jail. Ana-Ana: By halves. Analfa: Ignorant. Analfabestia: Ignorant. Añapar: To catch, to seize. Ancu: Word expressing alarm. Andante: Pedestrian.
is the dialect used in most
- Tangos to refer to certain things in special terms.
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- It is often considered as the language of Argentine Tango
- Porteño speech can make it completely unintelligible is the random addition of suffixes with no particular meaning, usually making common words sound reminiscent of Italian surnames. These endings include
- -Daniel Dampira etti, -elli eli, -oni, -eni, -anga, -ango, -enga, -engue, -engo, -ingui, -ongo
At one point or another everyone makes a humiliating mistake.
The following are some of my favorites in Argentina. Hopefully all you readers out there can learn yourselves!
Here we go:
Intended word: Pops (Papá)
Intended statement: Hey pops! How’s it going?
What was said: “Che papa! Cómo andas?”
Translation: Hey Potato! How’s it going?
Conclusion: One of those tricky pronunciation attempts that can go bad. I did that to a waiter fairly recently and he couldn’t stop laughing.
Intended word: years (años)
Intended statement: How old are you?
What was said: Cuántos anos tenés?
Translation: How many anuses do you have?
Conclusion: Ah sweet ñ! Ñever have you caused so many problems!
Intended statement: Excuse me, after accidentally brushing a woman’s leg. (Permiso)
What was said: Con tu permiso.
Translation: With your permission.
Conclusion: I suppose it might work?
Intended word: hot (calor)
Intended statement: I’m hot.
What was said: Estoy caliente.
Translation: I’m horny.
Conclusion: Maybe that’s what Principal Anderson meant to say? Anyone catch that reference?
Intended word: excited (emocionante)
Intended statement: I’m really excited to be here!
What was said: Estoy muy excitante para estar aca!
Translation: I’m really horny to be here!
Conclusion: I’ve heard different opinions on this one, Argentines and foreign students alike. Many Argentines believe this word is more commonly used as slang for horny. Others claim there is nothing wrong with using it as an adjective.
Intended statement: I don’t care (Me chupa un huevo)
What was said: Me chupo un huevo
Translation: I sucked my own ball
Conclusion: Such talent.
Thanks to commentor “Cagador” from the last edition…
Intended phrase: I want to charge my iPod (Quiero cargar mi iPod)
What was said: Quiero cagar mi iPod
Translation: I want to shit my iPod
I think there should be examples for each origin, not just Vesre, and the examples could be a lot more nicer and shorter. Let's say:
- Fiaca; meaning laziness, from the Italian word fiaco (weak)
- Gurí; meaning boy in Guarani_language
- Gomías; (amigos) meaning friends said as in vesre.
- Morfar; meaning to eat (origin unknown).
The examples that are now are not very representative, they just try to be funny.
- Feel free to modify the article, that's what wikipedia is about. I've read morfar is a deformation of mangiare (mangiare -> manshar -> morfar). Don't know how accurate that is. SpiceMan
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- I´m not sure that morfar came from mangiare, but manyar is a real lunfardo word, meaning to have knowledge.--Jfa
- Manyar' is to have knowledge?? I only use it as to eat. -Mariano 07:21, 2005 Jun 17 (UTC)
- Sure: Este tema lo tengo manyado (I know very well this subject).--Jfa
- You're right, I checked it out. Yet it's also used as To Eat. I never heard it asaide from food... -Mariano 16:22, 2005 Jun 17 (UTC)
Other Italian words:
- Cualunque - Of bad cuality (Italian qualunque -any)
- Esquiafo - slap (italian schiaffo -slap)
- Anque - Including/As well as (italian anche -also)
-Mariano 14:55, 2005 Jun 16 (UTC)
- I think it´s actually cualunque, not calunque (I always say it like that, cualunque). Another example is anque (meaning not to mention, or and even), from italian anche (but, even).--Jfa
- Cualunque, of course, it was just a Typo.
- You're right about anque (anche). It's funny, I never realized it's actually not spanish! But it doesn't means even, it means also (I think we also use it that way)
French [edit]
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- Does anyone know any notable from french? -Mariano 07:21, 2005 Jun 17 (UTC)
- Well, partusa, from the french partouse (slang for orgy).--Jfa
- Cocó for cocaine was French slang and made its way into a famous tango (A media luz). Other tangos from the 1920s and 1930s have quite a lot of French in them, but lunfardo did not assimilate them very well. Papusa is from French as well. Look here for a list of prostitution-related French terms.
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- I found one, but I think is rather new, from the 70s or so: Boîte (box)
- Another one is de cóte (sidewise). This one I'm sure is old tango stzle lunfardo.
- What about Piantar anyone knows where does that come from? -Mariano 09:15, July 11, 2005 (UTC)
- "Piantare" in standard Italian (to plant) => "Piantar" in most Southern Italian dialects. elpincha
Leche=>Chele [edit]
I'm from Buenos Aires and I've got yet to hear "chele" meaning leche (milk). I was born in 1979, is it a word which is no longer used? SpiceMan
- Veinte años no es nada: Feca con chele. Just Google for feca and chele. --Error
Nowadays argentine spanish slang is also called lunfardo. I haven't checked the article's history, but i'm pretty sure I've included such a notion in the article initially. Any reason why it is not longer here? I think it should be included. -SpiceMan
- SpiceMan: Your point is not correct. Nobody ever called "tirame las agujas" or any such thing "lunfardo". And nobody ever called Córdoba's slang "lunfardo", so there goes "Argentine Spanish slang". elpincha
- the distinction is quite unclear. I bet most argentine will say yes if asked asked whether trucho is lunfardo or not, and that term has started to be used around the early 90's... I doubt "hacer un pete" was part of the tango folklore, and it is on 2004's Oscar Conde's Diccionario etimológico del lunfardo, for instance. You could say that people ignoring the original meaning of lunfardo doesn't make argentina slang to be lunfardo, but even Clarin defined lunfardo as "all words of daily usage on Buenos Aires that are not on rae's dictionary" which is very arguable -and Buenos Aires centric-. But I do think that most people think of lunfardo in two ways: the old tango lunfardo, and as "argentine slang" (at least that's the case on Buenos Aires). So if that's not the case for all argentines, then it should be corrected and state "lunfardo is also the word porteños use to refer to argentine slang", but not erase that part of the article altogether. A nice link: [1]. Also [2] is noteworthy. SpiceMan
- Even if all of your points are correct, Cordoba slang and Mendoza slang and Corrientes slang are not lunfardo, so the Argentine part is incorrect in any case. "Trucho" is borderline lunfardo, but a lot of modern Buenos Aires usage is not; unwritten criteria negate lunfardo status to terms that grew out of the Plaza Francia scene (such as "tirame las agujas", "mata mil") and similar. Anyway, the classification of modern-day terms has also political overtones... Which could be incorporated into the article.
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- Also, note that ever since the 1960, under the influence of Freudianpsychoanalysis and European cabaret tradition, there is a lot of middle-class free usage of "bad words", and some might say this is lunfardo in action. Allow me to be a conservative voice even on this.
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- Anyway, the lower-class voice that gave lunfardo its color is now found mostly on cumbia villera, whose language will be incorporated into this (or other) article, sooner or later...elpincha
Using the word "Lunfardo" to designate just a segment of the dialectal popular Argentine Spanish restricted by historic period or origin, or else the whole spectrum of it is a choice. And I -- an Argentine -- chose to use it to name the whole thing, because doing otherwise would just make no sense, IMHO. And I believe that most people think alike when they think of it, and simply assume so when not thinking of it at all. The point is that if we do have a popular dialectal talk it deserves a name, then what's the point of refusing the name that it's had for more than a century in order to preserve don't-know-what supposedly scholar consideration, converting the word and its history in a museum item? The criterion of social sector procedence -- to include or exclude a word from Lunfardo -- seems feeble to me as well. Words from the ancient Lunfardo culture that no one today would exclude from it came from varied origins including upper class, cultivated and bohemian milieus, such as "bacán" or "vuaturé". What gives them their place as Lunfardo words is that they were (or are) popular dialectal voices used by a significant number of people during a significant period of time. In that sense, expressions such as "tirame las agujas" or "mata mil" would be excluded because they made no more than a short-lived fad, not for their procedence. Words or expressions such as "coparse", "copado", "pálida", "de onda", among others from similar origin, have in my opinion their legitimate place in (relatively) modern Lunfardo after about thirty years of continuous and expanding usage -- all over the country. For words no longer in use, we can talk of ancient Lunfardo, for those more recent we can talk of modern Lunfardo, for those who are still used since an ancient origin, we can talk of "classic" Lunfardo, and for the general dialectal popular language used in the present we can talk of current Lunfardo, or simply Lunfardo. Also, Lunfardo as I perceive it may very well include all regional popular dialectal talk of every Argentine province, such as Quechua origin "ishpar" (pee) or "aca" (shit) from Santiago del Estero, or Patagonian "bocha" (a lot) -- unless a particular region had (already or eventually) their own name.Mirarke
Quilombo [edit]
Mariano: Any particular reason why you removed the Quilombo link? It shows where the word comes from. Quilombo article not about lunfardo -the reason you typed- doesn't make much sense to me, if the Quilombo article was about lunfardo, it's text would be in the lunfardo article, or the articles should be merged and then make a redirect or something. Just as the links to Spanish language, wordplay, and heart are not about lunfardo, I don't see why Quilombo doesn't belong in here. SpiceMan
- Well, I removed the reference because the Quilombo article is neither about the Rioplatense Spanish word, nor about the origin of the word itself. It's just about how the word is used in Portuguese, and the Portuguese colonisation of Brazil, which is not connected to the Rioplatense word. The single line "In the Spanish of the Americas, the word has taken on the meanings of "brothel", "mess" and "boondocks"." seems both inaccurate (River Plate-area is much smaller than "The Americas") and forcefully added.
- If you consider the origin of the Rioplatense expression to be these Brazilian type of settlement and you whish to put it the reference, please try keep the definition in one line. -Mariano
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- Mariano, just edited your latest comment for clarity.
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- Quilombo is one of the black-oriented words that somehow shifted to mean ´´mess´´ in Buenos Aires after the end of the Rosas era (others would be: candombe, macumba). Borges used Quilombo in the second sentence (check) of Hombre de la Esquina Rosada, which was written initially in the 1920s, so go figure. elpincha
- Feel free to fix my ignorant edit (XD). I just felt that quilombo (the word) was quite representative of lunfardo. I leave the details to you ;P. But I still feel that quilombo (the article) is quite interesting to see what was the original meaning of the word, etc. SpiceMan
- Come on, Spicy, we're just trying to make a point. As you earylier pointed out, Brazilian Quilombo is not (necesarily) "the original meaning of the word". And it was not removed from the Lunfardo section but from the Modern Buenos Aires Slang. Please, move the word to Lunfardo and uncomment the HTML code to hide it. -Mariano
It sounds a bit strange to me the mention of "drugs", I call specialists to check it.
- Cocó, blanca, talco, macoña, porro, pichicata, falopa, merca, caramelito, raviol... elpincha
Problem is to distinguish Lunfardo from localisms. For instance, blanca, talco and porro are used almost everywhere (I mean the words, not the substances themselves, which are in fact also used almost everywhere, but that goes beyond the scope, not only of the Lunfardo article, but also of the syntactic analysis we are doing here). For the others, pincha, I wouldn't try Cocó, specially if in Brazil; it might leave you an after-taste. Good wiking, Mariano(t/c)
- Cocó is pure lunfardo, and is featured in the tango A media luz. You are right about most of the others (e.g. raviol is funny and is pure Buenos Aires, but I'd argue it's not lunfardo). As of the 2000s, the closest IMHO to a pure lunfardo word would be falopa. Y que gane Boca hoy! elpincha
Cocó in Brazil means caca. Falopa sounds like vesre, but can't figure out form which word! Gracias por tus completamente desinteresados deseos... Mariano(t/c)
- Truly, today I don't care about Lunfardo... but I do care about BOCA!!!! Thanks Pincha! Sebastian Kessel Talk
- Now, cocó was brought into lunfardo by the French, especially French prostitutes. Cocaine was legal during the early 20th century... and don't you know the famous coach Cocó Basilé?????
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In Spain, the slang is farlopa (even farla) with r. --84.20.17.84
| | Le tango Lunfardo + I want to shit my iPod! (Badly translated Spanish cursing)
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Posted to See Ya At What Gets Me hot via Dogmeat
unfard
