fandango means A form of lively flamenco music and dance that has many regional variations (e.g. fandango de Huelva), some of which have their own names (e.g. malagueña, granadina). Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 86 out of 100.
Why this word is great
FANDANGO — [Noun] A lively Spanish dance in triple meter, traditionally accompanied by guitars and castanets, or a gathering for dancing. Borrowed from Spanish fandango, of uncertain origin; possibly related to Portuguese fado or of West African origin. Unlike "flamenco" (which sprawls across a spectrum of styles) or "ball" (which stiffens under formality), fandango is a celebration distilled: heat, rhythm, and communal abandon. It is the percussive crack of castanets like summer lightning, the syncopated scrape of boots on sun-warmed cobblestones, the way laughter and music tangle in the open air—a fleeting defiance of life’s gravity.
noun
- A form of lively flamenco music and dance that has many regional variations (e.g. fandango de Huelva), some of which have their own names (e.g. malagueña, granadina).“The soldiers were oftener gambling and dancing beneath the walls than keeping watch upon the battlements, and nothing was heard from morning till night but the noisy contests of cards and dice, mingled with the sound of the bolero or fandango, the drowsy strumming of the guitar, and the rattling of the castanets, while often the whole was interrupted by the loud brawl and fierce and bloody contest”
- A gathering for dancing; a ball.“When Auguste Fretéllière and the painter Theodore Gentilz attended a fandango in the 1840s, the festivities took place near Military Plaza.”
- An unknown entity or contraption.“What’s that fandango you’re using?”
- A confusion; a chaotic collection.“To my infinite amusement it did take, and I had the satisfaction of seeing it on the boards and also hearing the audience roar with laughter; in fact, I laughed myself, not at my own jokes, but at the people who could be amused at such a fandango of nonsense.”
- An extravaganza; an instance of lavish and fantastical events or behavior.“I am preparing to set out in a fortnight, or little more, and jogging on comfortably through Bavaria, Suabia, and France (with a fandango of eight days at Paris), I shall get to Calais in the first week of May.”
- A shade of red-violet.
verb
- To dance the fandango.
- To dance, particularly with a lot of energy.