Word of the Day #2: quixotic
It was an infernally hot afternoon, above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and we spent much of it at repose, beneath the whir of the ceiling fan. Speller Primus perused a copy of The Blue Lotus1, a comic book in Hergé‘s classic series, The Adventures of Tintin. And then, “Who’s Don Quixote?” Thus we were led to today’s word of the day.
Word: quix·ot·ic
Pronunciation:
Part of speech: adjective
Etymology: fr. quixote, after Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605, 1615) by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.
Meaning: idealistic and utterly impractical, especially marked by rash lofty romantic ideas or chivalrous action doomed to fail2
The OED sheds a little more light on the alternative pronunciation, key-hotee, of the noun Quixote. Quixote derives from the Spanish word quijote which is a cuisse (a piece of armor worn on the thigh.)3
References
1. The Blue Lotus, Mammoth Books, 1990
2. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, p. 1868
3. The Oxford English Dictionary Q-R, p. 75