In lunfardo, a percanta is a woman.
The term percanta is not part of the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ). The concept is used in lunfardo , an Argentine slang that often appears in tango lyrics and colloquial speech.
A percanta, in lunfardo , is a woman . The notion is used above all to refer to that young woman or lady who sells her body or who maintains clandestine romantic relationships , although it can also refer to any woman (or mina , continuing with the lunfardo).
Percanta, in short, can be used in some contexts as a synonym for darling , lover or harlot . This word, however, is no longer used today.
Percanta in tango
The idea of percanta appears in the composition that is considered the first tango song in history: “Percanta que me amuraste” , also known as “My sad night” . The music was composed by Samuel Castriota , who named the work “Lita” . Then Pascual Contursi added the lyrics and gave it the title “Percanta que me amuraste” . However, the song ended up being incorporated into a farce like “Mi noche triste” .
This tango begins as follows: “Percanta que me amuraste / en el mejor de mi vida” . This phrase refers to a woman (la percanta ) who abandoned or abandoned ( amuró ) the subject in question.
“The percanta is sad” y “Regretful percanta” son otros tangos donde aparece este word en el título. Es importante tener en cuenta que muchos argentinos, sobre todos los más jóvenes, pueden no comprender a qué se refieren, debido a que percanta cayó en desuso.
The term percanta appears in several tangos.
A book by Iris M. Zavala
In addition to all the above, we must not forget the existence of a book that has in its title the term that concerns us now. We are referring to the novel “Percanta que me amuraste” . This is a book written by Iris M. Zavala , which was published in 2007 and revolves around a woman, which allows topics such as sex, love, passion, jealousy to be addressed...
That author (1936 – 2020) was a Puerto Rican writer who compiled a bibliography of about fifty titles, although among them the aforementioned book or “Let no one die without loving the sea” (1983) stood out.
Precisely, the aforementioned book has that title because each of the chapters of the work begins with a few verses from the aforementioned song “My sad night.”
Other meanings of percanta
However, we cannot ignore that in other countries the term percanta has a different meaning than what we have already explained. Thus, for example, in Colombia that word is used to refer to a person who has a bad reputation or reputation. An example of this could be the following phrase: “Manuel is a percanta, he is involved in dark matters and moves in a somewhat murky environment.”
In the same way, in that country the word percanta is also used to refer to a person who is considered to be a bad friend, unfaithful to their partner or even treacherous towards those close to them.