Word of the Day

quixotic, adj. and n.

Pronunciation:  Brit. /kwɪkˈsɒtɪk/ , U.S. /kwɪkˈsɑdɪk/

Forms:  16– quixotic, 17 quixotik, 17–18 quixotick, 18 quixottic

Etymology:  < Quixote n. + -ic suffix. Compare earlier quixotical adj. and Quixote adj.

 A. adj.

 

 1. Of an action, attribute, idea, etc.: characteristic of or appropriate to Don Quixote; demonstrating or motivated by exaggerated notions of chivalry and romanticism; naively idealistic; unrealistic, impracticable; (also) unpredictable, capricious, whimsical.

1718   N. Amhurst Protestant Popery iv. 61   Pulpit and Press ficticious Ills engage, And combat Windmills with Quixotic Rage.

1779   J. Thaxter Let. 15 Dec. in L. H. Butterfield et al. Adams Family Corr. (1973) III. 251   We made a Quixotik Appearance [on mules in Spain]..For we had Don Quixots, Sancha Pancas and Squires in Abundance.

1826   Lancet 16 Dec. 356/2   It would be somewhat Quixotic to expect, that no protests would be made.

1851   ‘L. Mariotti’ Italy in 1848 131   A daring that would seem almost quixotic.

1874   J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People x. 719   A quixotic mission to the Indians of Georgia.

1929   Travel Jan. 7 (caption)    One of the most romantic adventures of modern times: the quixotic attempt to carve an empire out of the New World.

1956   Zanesville (Ohio) Signal 2 July i. 4/5   A man of quixotic whims who once ran for president of the U.S.

1990   Times Lit. Suppl. 26 Feb. 90/4   Shostakovich was not the only artist who survived because of Stalin's quixotic approachability.

2004   T. Rosenbaum Myth of Moral Justice Introd. 3   The law comes across as unjust and quixotic... Its results don't feel right emotionally to those who are neither its insiders nor cast members.

 2. Of a person: resembling Don Quixote; visionary; enthusiastically chivalrous or romantic; naively idealistic; impractical, capricious.

1777   Mutability Human Life II. 259   Count Dismallo..waited on good Mrs. White before your Quixotic Villars had taken his final leave of her.

1815   J. Adams Wks. (1856) X. 157,   I considered Miranda as a vagrant, a vagabond, a Quixotic adventurer.

1857   T. Hughes Tom Brown's School Days i. i. 4   This family training..makes them eminently quixotic.

1898   Sandusky (Ohio) Star 15 July 1/4   Cunningham-Graham has long been familiar to the public as a Quixotic champion of lost causes.

1939   Fortune Oct. 30/2,   I was sad, because I always used to think of the Belgians as wonderfully quixotic, which it seems that they are not.

1974   N.Y. Times 20 May 33/2   No quixotic lot, this pool of windmill advocates now includes members of some of the most serious research institutes.

1994   H. Bloom Western Canon ii. v. 129   Against that claim I set the most poignant and Quixotic of all critical agonists, the Basque man of letters Miguel de Unamuno.

 

  A quixotic person. Also (rare) in pl.: quixotic sentiments.

1896   Spectator 7 Mar. 337   If..our Quixotics seem foolish or extravagant.

1918   Times 16 Mar. 9/3   ‘Our’ opera..will have nothing to do with maudlin decadents or unbalanced quixotics.

1974   Amer. Jrnl. Agric. Econ. 56 888/1   The quixotics, of course, also tilt among themselves whenever windmills are scarce.

1998   Eng. Hist. Rev. 113 501   Iain McCalman's joyfully written essay compares the perceived lunacies of Lord George Gordon and Edmund Burke, quixotics and prophets both.

  quiˈxoticism n. = quixotism n.

1850   De Bow's Rev. Aug. 169   The landing at Cardenas could only have been considered a piece of American Quixoticism.

1939   Tablet 3 June 705/1   Hungarian public life, that curious mixture of eloquence and generous impulse, of Quixoticism and brutal reality.

2005   Vanity Fair (N.Y.) (Nexis) Oct. 194   You might argue that it's quixoticism, an effort to preserve what's already lost..an effort to embrace for dear life the remains of the day.