Tag Archives: Don Quixote

Word-Built World: Don Quixote

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza
Brussels, Belgium, Photo: Dennis Jarvis

A.Word.A.Daywith Anu Garg

Don Quixote

PRONUNCIATION:

(don kee-HO-tee/tay, don KWIK-suht) 

MEANING:

noun: Someone who is unrealistic, naive, chivalrous, idealistic, etc. to an absurd degree.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Don Quixote, hero of the eponymous novel by Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616). Earliest documented use: 1644. Sometimes the term is used simply as Quixote. The adjectival form is quixotic.