Quixote
English
Etymology
After Don Quixote.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈkwɪksət/, /ˈkwɪksəʊt/, /kɪˈhəʊti/
Noun
Quixote (plural Quixotes)
- Someone resembling Don Quixote; someone who is chivalrous but unrealistic; an idealist. [from 17th c.]
- 1723, Charles Walker, Sally Salisbury:
- I had once determined to fix the terrible Name of some Man of War in the Front of your History, a perfect Hero, that should like another Quixot defend your Reputation right, or wrong [...].
- 1929, Cecil Day Lewis, Transitional Poem:
- Few things can more inflame / This far too combative heart / Than the intellectual Quixotes of the age / Prattling of abstract art.
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Related terms
- quixotic