Talk:Lunfardo

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Contents

[edit] Examples

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 18:17, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)
I´m not sure that morfar came from mangiare, but manyar is a real lunfardo word, meaning to have knowledge.--Jfa 15:50, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)
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 15:17, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
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 15:46, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)
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)

[edit] French

Does anyone know any notable from french? -Mariano 07:21, 2005 Jun 17 (UTC)
Well, partusa, from the french partouse (slang for orgy).--Jfa 15:14, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
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.
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 22:43, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Leche=>Chele

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 10:03, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Veinte años no es nada: Feca con chele. Just Google for feca and chele. --Error 04:10, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] slang

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 18:17, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)

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 05:46, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)
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 08:20, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)
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.
Also, note that ever since the 1960, under the influence of Freudian psychoanalysis 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.
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 04:35, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)

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 05:21, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Quilombo

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 11:38, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

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 12:02, 15 July 2005 (UTC)
Mariano, just edited your latest comment for clarity. elpincha 07:05, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
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 12:22, 15 July 2005 (UTC)
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 14:25, 16 July 2005 (UTC)
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 07:23, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Drugs

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 05:22, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

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) 09:04, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

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 13:14, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

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) 14:22, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

Truly, today I don't care about Lunfardo... but I do care about BOCA!!!! Thanks Pincha! Sebastian Kessel Talk 16:12, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
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?????
In Spain, the slang is farlopa (even farla) with r. --84.20.17.84 12:36, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Recatate or Rescatate?

There is a relatively new slang word gaining popularity. Because of the aspirated s used in Buenos Aires, in the word rescatate (save yourself) the letter s can sometimes be lost and sound like recatate (be careful, observe modesty). The meaning is unclear too. For example, if someone is being provoked, he can be answering rescatate (save yourself [from the beating I'm gonna give you]), or recatate (be careful [because you will get hurt]). So the word itself is unclear. While recatate appears to be a more appropiate term, because of its meaning, people seem to think that they're saying rescatate. Recato (modesty, caution) is more formal, while rescate (rescue) is a more widely used. As the people who started using this word (lower class people, villeros) are mostly uneducated, "rescatate" is what they claim to pronounce.

I find it hard to believe. In any case, it has also little to do with Lunfardo. Lunfardo is an Argentine argot, not just any Argentine argot. Mariano(t/c) 08:41, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
Hey. We Argies tend to pronounce "rescatate" as "rejcatate". Could it be the influence of Evangelical preachers? They do teach recato. elpincha 08:59, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Lunfardo Dictionary of the XIX (Clarín newspaper)

Clarín had an interesting article today about a found lunfardo dictionary from cca. 1873, that will be edited and printed.

Mariano(t/c) 12:30, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Junar

AFAIK, Caló junar/junelar means "to look at", not "to hear". Googling around, I find both meanings in separate pages.

[edit] Engrupir

Etimology: from spanish word "grupo" in their meaning of lie, i.e.: "esto es un grupo"="this is a lie" + "en" (in).
--190.55.60.54 09:18, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Spain??????

Why the lunfardo in the WikiProject Spain?...
The (only) correct thing is in Template:WikiProject Argentine and

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.
--190.55.60.54 09:27, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

removed --Mariano(t/c) 17:00, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Thanks!:)

--190.55.6.106 05:36, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Piringundín

I wanna know the origin of this word, anybody knows it?. "pee-reen-goon-DEEN" :p hehehehe--Vokoder 05:10, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Hm, tough one! But it looks like it's from Genova: Piringundín. --Mariano(t/c) 12:53, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
Thank You --Vokoder ¡Me Voy Volandoooo! 01:41, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Gurí

XGustaX, what makes you think in the firs place that the word was taking into Spanish from Portuguese and not directly from Guaraní, given the fact that the aboriginal language is also spoken in Argentina??? Here you have a source that gives the Lunfardo term a direct Guaraní origin [3] as most do.

I have also noticed that in the edits you have been making to Wikipedia, you tend to remove Native American connections to the Argentine culture; please, try to avoid letting your personal appreciations to bias your contributions, such as in here. --Mariano(t/c) 13:29, 25 May 2007 (UTC)


For starters Mariano, I was just copying and pasting that from the Argentine cuisine section. Secondly, It is obvious the word is aborignal origin. The thing I am found though since Northeast some people tended to mix a Portuguese especially back in colonial times this could have came out of mixture of portuguese and Spanish. I was merly trying to be less baist because if we say Hurricane comes from Spanish why cant we say Guri comes from Portuguese(if that is the case) althought both words have aborginal origins? [4] Since the word does appear in Portuguese and I would find it hard that both languages would adopt this. After looking up further it seems like it is a word in the Portuguese language. Why doesn't it say it is of Taino origin? You want to know something else I have noticed you revert my contritubtions as well and with a certain bias against them I might add. Since all i was trying to do was to add to section by copying and pasting. XGustaX 13:45, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

The fact that it appears in a Spanish/Portuguese dictionary doesn't make it come one from the other. The word is also present in the Spanish language[5]. --Mariano(t/c) 17:11, 25 May 2007 (UTC)