A.Word.A.Day --quixotic

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quixotic

PRONUNCIATION:

(qwik-SOT-ik)

MEANING:

adjective:
1. Absurdly chivalrous, idealistic, or impractical.
2. Impulsive, unpredictable.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Don Quixote, hero of the eponymous novel by Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616). Earliest documented use: 1718.

NOTES:

Cervantes's novel has given us another idiom, tilting at windmills: fighting with imaginary or invincible opponents. In the novel, Don Quixote perceives windmills in the distance as giants and proceeds to attack them. The word tilt here is a synonym for joust.

USAGE:

"Mr. Light is a gift to his community, a Robin Hood of an electrician who fiddles the meters for customers too poor to pay, and a quixotic visionary with a homemade windmill in his backyard."
Kate Taylor; The Light Thief (movie review); The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Nov 18, 2010.

See more usage examples of quixotic in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever. -Anatole France, novelist, essayist, Nobel laureate (1844-1924)

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