If you’ve spent any decent length time at all in Argentina, or more specifically Buenos Aires or have an interest in Argentine Tango you are bound to have come across Lunfardo.
Lunfardo is the Argentine equivalent of London cockney slang in the UK – but more elegant.
Its beginnings date back to the arrival of the Italian immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th century – those that came over to Argentina and lived in the slums of Buenos Aires – which is also where Tango was born.
The word lunfardo itself is said to have originated from Italian prisons, a language used amongst inmates so that prison guards couldn’t understand what was being said. It made its way across the ocean to Argentina where it was still associated with criminals for quite some time.
As Tango was also born in the Buenos Aires slums it’s no surprise Lunfardo made its way into Tango song lyrics. Carlos Gardels’ song Mi Noche Triste was the first tango song to have a beginning, middle and end (which made it appealing to the massive and gained a lot of radio play-time) and was filled with lunfardo lyrics.
My Top 10 Lunfardo words
- Facha – Means “face” and by extension “appearance”, “looks” (from Italian faccia, “face”). You might hear it as ¡Qué facha! How great (as in looks/appearence)
- Fiaca – Means “laziness” in Spanish or a lazy person (from the Italian fiacca, “laziness, sluggishness”). Used in Spanish as ¿tienes fiaca? Are you feeling lazy?
- Laburar – Means “to work” (from Italian lavorare, “to work”). An example could be; tengo que laburar el sábado.
- Guita – Means “money”. Used interchangabley all the time with dinero.
- Luca – Is “1,000 pesos” in Argentine currency.
- Mango – Refers to “un peso” as in the Argentine currency of pesos. You hear it used as no tengo un mango (I don’t have any money!)
- Mina – Means “chick”, “broad” (from the Italian femmina, “female”). Not the nicest way to refer to a woman but remember that Argentina (and South America in general) is a chauvinist country – if you hear this language, you can of course challenge it (but make sure you’re prepared!)
- Morfar – Means “to eat”.
- Pibe – Widely used throughout the country and it means “kid”, a common term for boy or, in more recent times, for young man. It comes from Italian word “pivello”.
- Quilombo – Means “racket”, “ruckus”, “mess”. Very informal, definitely don’t use this word in a professional setting.
Language acquisition at its best
Sometimes, probably due to the length of time I spent in Argentina and how accustomed I was to hear and use lunfardo myself I often didn’t even realise I was hearing it at all. It became part of my own language. A prime example of language acquisition.