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Dec 4, 2009
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Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—D

Don Quixote

(2 syl.). A gaunt country gentleman of La Mancha, gentle and dignified, affectionate and simple-minded, but so crazed by reading books of knight-errantry that he believes himself called upon to redress the wrongs of the whole world, and actually goes forth to avenge the oppressed and run a tilt with their oppressors. The word Quixote means The cuish-armed. (See Quixotic.)

A Don Quixote.
A dreamy, unpractical man, with a “bee in his bonnet.”

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Donation of Pepin
Don Juan
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