fandango
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /fænˈdæŋ.ɡəʊ/
ipa: /fænˈdæŋ.ɡoʊ/
rhymes: -æŋɡəʊ
Forms: form: fandangos
form: fandangoes
Etymology: Borrowed from Spanish fandango, of uncertain origin. Possibly related to Portuguese fado, or of West African origin.
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 1829, Washington Irving, chapter XXVI, in Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada:
text: […] sweet to us it is to behold delightful dancing, be it the stately splendour of the Pavane which progresseth as large clouds at sun-down that pass by in splendour; or the graceful Allemande; or the Fandango, which goeth by degrees from languorous beauty to the swiftness and passion of Bacchanals dancing on the high lawns under a summer moon that hangeth in the pine trees; or the joyous maze of the Galliard; or the Gigue, dear to the Foliots.
ref: 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 33:
text: We skipped the light fandango / Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
ref: 1967, “A Whiter Shade of Pale”, in Procol Harum, performed by Procol Harum:
text: I see a little silhouetto of a man / Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the fandango?
ref: 1975, Freddie Mercury, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, in A Night at the Opera, performed by Queen:
text: I'm wearing a Spanish skirt so what's wrong with dancing a fandango.
ref: 2014, Rosie Harris, Looking For Love, page 179:
topics: dance
dancing
entertainment
hobbies
lifestyle
music
sports
coordinate_terms: bolero
glosses: 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).
examples: text: When Auguste Fretéllière and the painter Theodore Gentilz attended a fandango in the 1840s, the festivities took place near Military Plaza.
ref: 2008, Gene Fowler, Mavericks: A Gallery of Texas Characters, page 38:
text: Fortunately, in the nineteenth century Iosé Maria Esteva wrote a poetic and detailed account of 'La guanabana' being danced by a group of women at a fandango.
ref: 2013, Alec Dempster, Lotería Jarocha: Linoleum Prints, page 66:
glosses: A gathering for dancing; a ball.
examples: text: What’s that fandango you’re using?
text: She had on a new silk dress, flounced clear up to her knees, and some kind of a fandango of a thing on her shoulders.
ref: 1878, Lumasea, Ruined, and how, page 25:
glosses: An unknown entity or contraption.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1901, Marcian, Relics of the Late William Shakespeare, page 21:
text: A splotch of colour on a wall charmed his eye, a fandango of shadows, the nonchalant pose of some labourer.
ref: 1934, Albert Craig Baird, Essays and Addresses Toward a Liberal Education, page 213:
text: Such a fandango of wicked lies Mrs. Love had never heard tell in all her born days.
ref: 1950, Garnett Weston, Legacy of Fear, page 136:
text: So it must have been appalling, a veritable stab in the belly, when these undreamed-of smells infiltrated the familiar ranks, assailing her nostrils with a gypsy effrontery, a fandango of exotic spice.
ref: 2002, David Grossman, The Book of Intimate Grammar: A Novel:
text: "She was latin, and she was satin” a commotion by moonlight a conundrum by candlelight a fandango of respite and tailbones in an invertebratology of polyclads, skates, chitons, and vestigial gills
ref: 2009, Mathew Kinsella, The California Tales: A Novel, page A-285:
glosses: A confusion; a chaotic collection.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1849, Robert Murray Keith, Memoirs and Correspondence (official and Familiar), page 45:
text: Venice whirled towards her fall, in the reign of the 120th Doge, in a fandango of high living and enjoyment, until at last Napoleon, brusquely deposing her ineffective Government, ended the Republic and handed the Serenissima contemptuously to the Austrians.
ref: 1979, Toby Cole, Venice, a Portable Reader, page 38:
text: Scaramouche, what a fandango of a life.
ref: 2002, Theatre Record - Volume 22, Issues 19-26, page 1292:
text: Highlights of the recent high society swirl include jewellery and watch collection debuts, champagne celebrations, boutique store openings, hi-tech art and product launches and fashion fandangos aplenty.
ref: 2019 July 1, “Chukkas for charity on Hua Hin sands”, in Tatler Thailand:
glosses: An extravaganza; an instance of lavish and fantastical events or behavior.
glosses: A shade of red-violet.
examples: text: So, what? She strangled her and stuck a broken bottle up her... fandango?
ref: 2016, Sally Wainwright, 12:04 from the start, in Happy Valley, season 2, episode 2, spoken by Shafiq Shah (Shane Zaza):
glosses: Vagina.