Thread: ¿Cómo traducir "pánfilo"?

Even though I'm embarrassed to admit it, I don't know the exact meaning of the word "pánfilo", I have heard it some times.

The two times I heard it, they both had different meaning.
In the lyrics of the Tango:
Marioneta
circa 1928
Music:Juan José Guichandut
Lyrics: Armando Tagini
Marioneta. Tango (1928)

-¡Arriba, doña Rosa!...
¡Don Pánfilo, ligero!...
Y aquel titiritero
de voz aguardentosa
nos daba la función.

And another time was when I was clumsy this morning and dropped a cup of coffee, and my father said "dale pánfilo!" in the tone of "come on dumb-dumb!"

I know it was the name of a Spanish explorer form way back, but that's as far as my knowledge goes.

Anyone care to help a little?

Yo lo he escuchado en el contexto de la procrastinación.

Originally Posted by reminder

Yo lo he escuchado en el contexto de la procrastinación.

Could you expand the context? or tell us what do you mean?

I found procrastinating as being a sloth or deliberatively postponing responsibilities with mundane tasks, rather than being a silly or dumb person.

Also "panfilo" or "pánfilo" isn't named in the thread.

About the Tango Lyrics on it selves it seems that Doña Rosa and Don Panfilo were characters of the play of Marionettes that the Tango describes.

So in this particular case Pánfilo isn't used as a verb but as a noun.
The verb in the tango is Ligero, light.

Partial Source: Todotango.com

Still a lot of mystery remains to scab.

Originally Posted by solg

Couldn't it just be a name which later acquired other connotations?
I think there's a Pánfilo in Greek Mythology, but I'm no expert.

Originally Posted by reminder

Jejejejeje.

¿Qué puedo acotar, Solg? ¡Muy buen comentario! Don Pánfilo fue rey de los dorios, claro, por el solo hecho de ser hijo del rey anterior.

La historia se repite... a veces.

Both your comments inspired a little research, maybe the original name wasn't in spanish Pánfilo, but in greek Pamphilus

And I found a little note on a wikipedia page that talks about a comedic play:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamphilus_de_amore

Then! Saint Pamphilus day of feast is February 16th which is very close to 14th Saint Valentine.

It all makes some weird sense.

pamphilus.png

saintPamphilus.png