the.com/fandango
A wild Spanish dance that became the place you buy popcorn-money tickets.
means A lively Spanish-Andalusian courtship dance in triple time for two dancers with castanets — and, by extension, any elaborate fuss or showy carry-on.
from Borrowed straight from Spanish 'fandango,' a dance name that surfaced in the 18th century. Beyond that, its deeper roots are genuinely murky — etymologists shrug. One popular guess ties it to a word of African or Afro-Latin origin carried across the Atlantic, but that's far from proven, and Spanish dictionaries simply mark it 'of uncertain origin.' The figurative 'big fuss' sense grew in English by association with the dance's noisy, whirling extravagance.
- origin
- Spanish courtship dance in lively triple meter
- opera fame
- Mozart used it in The Marriage of Figaro
- slang
- Once meant any showy, tomfoolery-filled commotion
- ticket giant
- Sells movie tickets for thousands of US theaters
fandango flamenco dance — spanish folk dance originating in andalusia, traditionally performed in 3/4 time with castanets and guitar
fandango atlanctic fish — diplodus vulgaris, small white fish species found in mediterranean and atlantic waters off southern europe