Borrowed from Spanish fandango, of uncertain origin. Possibly related to Portuguese fado, or of West African origin.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfæn.dæŋ.ɡəʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æŋɡəʊ

fandango (countable and uncountable, plural fandangos or fandangoes)

2. (music, dance) 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). [from mid 18th c.]

   Coordinate term: bolero

   • 1829, Washington Irving, chapter XXVI, in Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada:

     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.

   • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros‎^[1], London: Jonathan Cape, page 33:

     […] 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.

   • 1967, “A Whiter Shade of Pale”, in Procol Harum, performed by Procol Harum:

     We skipped the light fandango / Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor

   • 2014, Rosie Harris, Looking For Love, page 179:

     I'm wearing a Spanish skirt so what's wrong with dancing a fandango.

3. A gathering for dancing; a ball.
   • 2008, Gene Fowler, Mavericks: A Gallery of Texas Characters, page 38:

     When Auguste Fretéllière and the painter Theodore Gentilz attended a fandango in the 1840s, the festivities took place near Military Plaza.

   • 2013, Alec Dempster, Lotería Jarocha: Linoleum Prints, page 66:

     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.

4. (figurative, colloquial) An unknown entity or contraption.

   What’s that fandango you’re using?

   • 1878, Lumasea, Ruined, and how, page 25:

     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.

5. A confusion; a chaotic collection.
   • 1901, Marcian, Relics of the Late William Shakespeare, page 21:

     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.

   • 1934, Albert Craig Baird, Essays and Addresses Toward a Liberal Education, page 213:

     A splotch of colour on a wall charmed his eye, a fandango of shadows, the nonchalant pose of some labourer.

   • 1950, Garnett Weston, Legacy of Fear, page 136:

     Such a fandango of wicked lies Mrs. Love had never heard tell in all her born days.

   • 2002, David Grossman, The Book of Intimate Grammar: A Novel:

     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.

   • 2009, Mathew Kinsella, The California Tales: A Novel, page A-285:

     "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

6. An extravaganza; an instance of lavish and fantastical events or behavior.
   • 1849, Robert Murray Keith, Memoirs and Correspondence (official and Familiar), page 45:

     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.

   • 1979, Toby Cole, Venice, a Portable Reader, page 38:

     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.

   • 2002, Theatre Record - Volume 22, Issues 19-26, page 1292:

     Scaramouche, what a fandango of a life.

   • 2019 July 1, “Chukkas for charity on Hua Hin sands”, in Tatler Thailand:

     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.

7. A shade of red-violet. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

   fandango:  

8. (euphemistic) Vagina.
   • 2016, Sally Wainwright, 12:04 from the start, in Happy Valley, season 2, episode 2, spoken by Shafiq Shah (Shane Zaza):

     So, what? She strangled her and stuck a broken bottle up her... fandango?

fandango (third-person singular simple present fandangos, present participle fandangoing, simple past and past participle fandangoed)

1. (dance) To dance the fandango.
2. (figuratively) To dance, particularly with a lot of energy.

• fandango on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “fandango”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• fandangue (Francised form)

Borrowed from Spanish fandango.

• IPA^(key): /fɑ̃.dɑ̃.ɡo/

fandango m (plural fandangos)

1. fandango

• “fandango”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from Spanish fandango.

• IPA^(key): /fanˈda.ŋo/, [fanˈda.ŋo]
• Rhymes: -ɡo
• Hyphenation: fan‧dan‧go

fandango (plural fandango-fandango)

1. (dance) fandango

• “fandango” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

Borrowed from Spanish fandango.

• IPA^(key): /fanˈdan.ɡo/
• Rhymes: -anɡo
• Hyphenation: fan‧dàn‧go

fandango m (plural fandanghi)

1. (dance, music) fandango

• fandango in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Unknown, possibly from Old Spanish *fadango, from fado.

• IPA^(key): /fanˈdanɡo/ [fãn̪ˈd̪ãŋ.ɡo]
• Rhymes: -anɡo
• Syllabification: fan‧dan‧go

fandango m (plural fandangos)

1. (music, dance) fandango

• → English: fandango
• → French: fandango, fandangue (Francised form)
• → German: Fandango
• → Italian: fandango
• → Russian: фанда́нго (fandángo)
• → Swedish: fandango

• “fandango”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

Borrowed from Spanish fandango. Attested since 1796.

fandango c

1. (music, dance) fandango

• fandango in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• fandango in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• fandango in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)