tango1
/ˈtaŋɡəʊ
/noun (plural tangos)
1A ballroom dance originating in Buenos Aires, characterized by marked rhythms and postures and abrupt pauses.The Argentine tango originated in Buenos Aires at the turn of the last century....
- His main recreation remains ballroom dancing - tango, cha cha and waltz being his specialities.
- Women dance flamenco and tango and belly dancing.
1.1A piece of music written for or in the style of the tango, typically in a slow, dotted duple rhythm.I also like to skate to classical music, tangos and Arabian music....
- There is always a tension in his music between the expressionist angst of contemporary classical music and the tango tradition.
- He caps them with the theme rewritten as a polka/waltz, a tango, a czardas, in ragtime, and ‘in the style of film music.’
2A code word representing the letter T, used in radio communication.It is very easy to be confused between the letters B and P, M and N etc. when speaking over the radio or telephone for example ‘TOM’ you would pronounce this as:- Tango Oscar Mike....
- Our echo-tango-alpha is thirty minutes.
- Golf Romeo Tango, turn left thirty degrees for identification.
verb (tangoes, tangoing, tangoed) [no object]
Dance the tango: they tangoed around the room...
- They've spun, tangoed, waltzed, rumbaed, salsaed, funked, jazzed, hip-hopped and twirled their little hearts out and now they're sashaying off into the sunset in an hour-long final.
- The dinner at the club is usually followed by a night of dancing, and at these galas, he is famous for tangoing and fox-trotting with every man's wife until the band packs up and calls it quits.
- ‘I had this marine here,’ I indicated the crumpled form of the marine, ‘want to tango with me, so we tangoed.’
Phrases
it takes two to tango
Origin
Late 19th century: from Latin American Spanish, perhaps of African origin.
In Latin tango means ‘I touch’, which would seem to be an appropriate origin for the sensual South American dance the tango, but the word has quite a different origin. It is from Latin American Spanish, and is perhaps ultimately of African origin. It takes two to tango has become a modern-day proverb meaning ‘both parties involved in a situation are equally responsible for it’. It started life as the title of a song written in 1952 by Al Hoffman and Dick Manning.
Rhymes
tango2
/ˈtaŋɡəʊ/noun [mass noun] British informal, dated
An orange-yellow colour.Use the box below to receive your unique price quote for the Acacia Tango Orange Vertical Blinds....
- She smouldered in a floor length gem-encrusted crimson gown and Tango-coloured mohair evening wrap, while the model modelled the flimsiest of fur halter tops.
- I personally don't find him that funny and it's even more odd to have blow-dried hair, a Tango coloured fake tan and Hollywood white teeth on an otherwise essentially gothic man.
Origin
Early 20th century: abbreviation of tangerine, influenced by tango1.