# How to pronounce "quixotic" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 21, 2003, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562 "2003-11-21T20:09:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![GRIZZBAR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f19dbf/32.png) [@GRIZZBAR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GRIZZBAR)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562/61 "2003-12-27T02:47:52Z")
The paradox of proper pronunciation has always been a tricky one. However, while I have never heard anyone use this particular version, “key-hoe-tick” I would not be so brash as to immediately discount it as wrong. I can, however, submit the following explaination for those of you - as I see it. Yes, the pronounciation, “kwick-zah-tick” is the Anglicized version of an obviously Spanish word. Just as they say, “Jag-Yoo-wahr” for what we Americans call a “Jag-Wahr”, and let’s not forget the ever famous so-called mispronunciated, “Con-Kwist-A-Dor” in the late 60s Procal Harum single “Conquistador”. Taken at face value, the proper pronunciation is always in the eye of the beholder. Show the word, “quixotic” to a person from Spain and your likely to hear, “key-hoe-tick”, or maybe “key-show-tick”. Show the same word to an English bloke, “qwick-zah-tic” blurts out. Show it to someone from China, and… Well, you get the picture. In the words of the Great Comedian, “Remember, if your not confused, it probably means you’re nor thinking clearly enough!” GRIZZ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562/62 "2003-12-27T04:51:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GRIZZBAR \* > Taken at face value, the proper pronunciation is always in the eye of the beholder. Show the word, “quixotic” to a person from Spain and your likely to hear, “key-hoe-tick”, or maybe “key-show-tick”. Show the same word to an English bloke, “qwick-zah-tic” blurts out. Show it to someone from China, and… Nope. Quixotic is 100% an English word and 0% Spanish. Spanish has _no_ bearing on how it is pronounced because the word is derived in English. It is _not_ derived from a Spanish word and the corresponding Spanish word (quijotesco) is quite different. Show the word, “quixotic” to a person from Spain and **you are** likely to get a confused look as they will not recognize it as a Spanish word at all. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562/63 "2003-12-27T06:18:42Z")
Yes, and that Komet Kee-ho-tik was a big disappointment. You 'member that? You 'member FDIC? I do. I 'member LS/MFT, too. ---
**Author:** ![jimpatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9e5f3/32.png) [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562/64 "2003-12-27T06:56:44Z")
You can’t derive something \*in \* English. You derive it \*from \* English. Anyway I guarantee you non Spanish speakers aren’t pronouncing Quixote as Kee-hoe-teh. But rather Kee-hoe-tee or Kee-hoe-tay. So there’s no reason Kee-hoe-tic wouldn’t jibe with the current American or British pronunciation of Quixote. ---
**Author:** ![UselessGit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/74df32/32.png) [@UselessGit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UselessGit)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562/65 "2003-12-27T14:55:10Z")
I was all for Key-hoe-tick at first but… We call old Don Quixote “Kíkóti” here, KEy-KOe-TIh, and although we know (pretty much) how it is pronounced in Spanish you never hear the spanish pronounciation here. I don’t know the equivalent to the word Quixotic in Icelandic but it would be something like Kíkótískur (Quixotic) or Kíkótismi (Quixotism). If an Icelander were to use these words “the spanish way” he’d probably just get laughed at. There are several english words that are taken from Icelandic, for example (window is the only word that springs to mind, vindauga being the original), but I’s hate to hear you trying for the original Icelandic way of saying it. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562/66 "2003-12-27T15:13:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jimpatro \* > You can’t derive something \*in \* English. You derive it \*from \* English. No. I disagree. You can derive a word from an English word or from a foreign word and you can derive it using English rules or foreign rules. Quixotic is an English adjective derived using English rules from an English noun. Just like “idiotic” is an English adjective derived using English rules from an English noun. The fact that the word “idiot” has its roots in another language has no bearing. The fact that the word “Quixote” has its roots in another language has no bearing either. ---
**Author:** ![GRIZZBAR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f19dbf/32.png) [@GRIZZBAR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GRIZZBAR)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562/67 "2003-12-27T18:22:05Z")
re: > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sailor \* > \*\*Nope. Quixotic is 100% an English word and 0% Spanish. Spanish has _no_ bearing on how it is pronounced because the word is derived in English. It is _not_ derived from a Spanish word and the corresponding Spanish word (quijotesco) is quite different. Show the word, “quixotic” to a person from Spain and **you are** likely to get a confused look as they will not recognize it as a Spanish word at all. \*\* Most certainly, there is no direct translation from the word “quixotic” in the Spanish to English dictionary, but you missed my point. I was only stating that if you were to show the word, regardless how it was spelled, to an Englishman, Spaniard, or someone from Outer Mongolia, for that matter, you were liable to get any number of different pronuciations. It was, after all, what we were talking about, mispronunciation of the word “quixotic”. But something else you said troubles me… “‘Quixotic’ is 100% an English word…” is quizzling. Was Cervantes secretly an Englishman? Did he write the original text in English and not in his mother tongue, Spanish? And, since Modern English as a language was compiled from French, Greek, German, Spanish, Dutch and about a couple dozen other mother tongues, then that begs the final question… What exactly is an 100% English word, anyway? I leave it to literary license causing all of this hullabaloo! Since the term ‘quixotry’ has been around at least since the early 1700s I say that Cervantes saw this word and decided to use it to describe his main character in Don Quixote. Replacing the “j” in the Spanish “quijote” with an “x” was his way of describing the flaws of the main character simply by his name. And those who new the word would “get the joke” he was telling in his play on words. I see that on [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) you will find new translations, the tite is spelled, “Don Quijote”. FYI As the late great Bernard Shaw once said, “America and England: two great nations divided by one common language!” NUFF SAID! GRIZZ ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562/68 "2003-12-27T22:29:31Z")
Hallo… This is an interesting thread. I guess that, being a native Spanish person (and not only that, but native from La Mancha like Don Quijote) I might have something to say 🙂 First of all, “Don Quixote” happens to be an archaic writing of the hidalgo’s name. In Spanish you will see the name written as “Don Qui **j** ote”, the “J” being a very harsh, guttural “KH” sound like in Dutch, or Arabic, or Hebrew (similar to the CH in “chanukkah”). In the old times, “X” would substitute for either the “SH” or the “KH” sounds. In the case of our hero, the intended sound was “KH”. Regarding “Quixotic”, there is a perfectly standard Spanish word that means exactly the same as “quixotic”: **quijotesco**. Its pronounciation is “Kee - Kho - TEHS - ko”. Regarding some previous posts, **_GRIZZBAR_ dixit** : > [@](#): > > I leave it to literary license causing all of this hullabaloo! Since the term ‘quixotry’ has been around at least since the early 1700s I say that Cervantes saw this word and decided to use it to describe his main character in Don Quixote. Replacing the “j” in the Spanish “quijote” with an “x” was his way of describing the flaws of the main character simply by his name. And those who new the word would “get the joke” he was telling in his play on words. I see that on [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) you will find new translations, the tite is spelled, “Don Quijote”. FYI There was no replacement of the “J” with an “X”. In the 17th century (the first part of “Don Quijote” was published in 1605 and the second in 1615), the letter “J” did not exist in Spanish. “J” appeared quite some time later. Regarding the “1700” thing, it would be surprising for Cervantes to see that, since he died on April 23, 1616 (although it looks the same as the day in which Shakespeare died, they didn’t die in the same day: England hadn’t yet switched to the Gregorian calendar, while Spain had). Cervantes didn’t take a word and use it to name his character: All “Quixote”-related words come from the character, not the other way round. **_sailor_ dixit:** > [@](#): > > Nope. Quixotic is 100% an English word and 0% Spanish. Spanish has _no_ bearing on how it is pronounced because the word is derived in English. It is _not_ derived from a Spanish word and the corresponding Spanish word (quijotesco) is quite different. It doesn’t look that different to me, to tell the truth. “quixotic” and “quijotesco”… They don’t look that different. You can easily see their similarities and guess at their common derivation from “Quixote” (or “Quijote”). However, be warned: Nowadays you will also hear the word “quijótico” in Spanish, which appears to be a direct borrowing from English. It is pronounced “Kee - KHOH - tih - koh”. Sort of a cute boomerang effect… **_sailor_ dixit as well:** > [@](#): > > Show the word, “quixotic” to a person from Spain and you are likely to get a confused look as they will not recognize it as a Spanish word at all. Actually, I did the test with my sister, who doesn’t speak English 🙂 She recognised the word instantly and got its meaning instantly, even though I told her it was in English. When I asked her how she would pronounce it, she said “Kee - KHOH - tihk”. To tell the truth, when I heard the word “quixotic” pronounced as “kwikzahtic” or something like that, I cringe. It sounds completely antinatural to me 🙂 But then, I have been hearing my whole life “Kee-KHO-teh” and “Kee-kho-TEHS-koh”. Just my 2 eurocents! JoseB ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2003, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562/69 "2003-12-28T02:55:06Z")
I wondered how to pronounce it. Kee-ho-tic is what I expected, since it means “like kee-ho-tee”. But somebody that didn’t know the word would probably guess “kwixotic” from the spelling. Also wondered why Chicago is supposedly called “Chi-town” and whether people pronounced it “shit-town” or what. If “kwixotic” is the accepted standard, well, so be it. But anybody who thinks it’s stupid to guess “kee-ho-tic” needs a sound thrashing, too, if you ask me. ---
**Author:** ![jbird3000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/aeb1de/32.png) [@jbird3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jbird3000)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2003, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562/70 "2003-12-28T08:25:26Z")
OK, so if this is true of any foreign word… Marseille is pronounced “Mar-say” Marseillian (person from Marseille, I don’t know if that’s the right word) would be pronounces “Mar-see-lee-an”? And the same with “Buenos Airesian” becomes “Bwee-noss Air-see-an”? “Tijuanan” becomes “Tie-joo-an-an”? ---
**Author:** ![Marvel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marvel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvel)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2003, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562/71 "2003-12-28T15:41:50Z")
One of my all-time favorite college profs, Dr. Dolzani (gotta love a guy who incorporates Star Trek into a Milton lecture) pronounced the character’s name “Quick-zot,” as in the first two-thirds of “Quick-zot-ick.” Never heard anyone do that before or since, so I’m wondering where THAT came from. Shoulda thought to ask. Any ideas out there? Back to lurking, Patty ---
**Author:** ![im-PRE-sive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9d8465/32.png) [@im-PRE-sive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/im-PRE-sive)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2003, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562/72 "2003-12-29T02:30:21Z")
I say down with the descriptivist scum! If people want to say “irregardless” and “nucular”, I can’t stop them. What I can do, however, is berate them and laugh at them behind their backs. And that’s what I’m going to do. The fact that “quixotic” (kwik-sah-tic) came from spanish doesn’t really mean anything in regard to pronunciation. The great (and ironically annoying) thing about english is that it is a mish-mash of other, living and dead, languages. The fact is, while “quixotic” came from spanish, it is not a spanish word. It never was a spanish word. So there is no reason to pronounce it as the spanish would. Things change. When a word is adopted from one language to another as a root, its pronunciation (not pro-NOUN-ciation) and spelling can change. In fact, you might as well just say “adapted.” Another thing: > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JoseB \* > Actually, I did the test with my sister, who doesn’t speak English 🙂 She recognised the word instantly and got its meaning instantly, even though I told her it was in English. JoseB \*\* If I gave you the word “reprehendere” and ask you what it meant, do you think there is any possibilty that you might come up with “reprehend”? And if I then told you that “reprehendere” is a latin word meaning “to scold,” would you be at all suprised? I rest my case. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_the\_elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@Steve\_the\_elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_the_elf)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2003, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562/73 "2003-12-30T00:02:08Z")
Thank you im-PRE-sive. You hit the nail nail on the head and this is what some of us have been trying to say. IT’S NOT A SPANISH WORD. IT’S ENGLISH! By the way, I think some of our spellings of “pronunciation” as “pronounciation” is carelessless, not ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![im-PRE-sive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9d8465/32.png) [@im-PRE-sive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/im-PRE-sive)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2003, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562/74 "2003-12-30T01:06:07Z")
I wan’t talking about the spelling, I was talking about the, um, pronunciation. Some people proNOUNce it proNOUNciation, that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2004, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562/75 "2004-01-03T09:01:10Z")
I found this important enough to delurk for - I’ve spend most of a lifetime with an embarrasing misinderstanding of the word. And, since no one else in this thread has mentioned it, it’s apparently **just me** : I was taught in middle school that “quixotic” was an alternate spelling (via Don Quixote) of “chaotic”, and pronounced the same way. Since it’s not the sort of word one uses very often, this apparently mistaken belief instilled in my by my now-suspect education survived into adulthood. Only now, browsing this thread and [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com), do I realize that they have different meanings – although close enough that if you were to use them interchangably in the “disordered” sense, most folks would probably not notice the error. ---
**Author:** ![mrqwertyui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@mrqwertyui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrqwertyui)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2004, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562/76 "2004-01-04T13:59:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Noone Special \* > \*\*On further search, it appears that the Hebrew version was made [from the German](http://dbgw.finlit.fi/fili/fi/toiminta/salzberger.html): > Can any German speaker corroborate this? Is it KEESHOT in German as well, as this source claims? \*\* In German the name is actually pronounced something like kee-shoh-teh, based on the French spelling (Quichotte, as it’s often spelled in German as well) but the terminal E is still prounounced. So here’s an example of a the French spelling of the name of a Spanish book being pronounced more or less according to German rules. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2004, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562/77 "2004-01-04T14:28:29Z")
The reason I think Quixotic is pronounced using the English phonetics and not the Spanish is the convention (in British English at least) where it was considered affected or pretentious to emulate the foreign pronunciation of an imported word or name when speaking in English. Hence purists will say ‘Don Quick-sote’ for Don Quixote. As this convention is applied inconsistently across the language, I would say that it is falling out of use and has only survived in certain words - like quixotic- and not in others. I know that my grandmother, who could pronounce French, would say ‘sang froid’ as ‘sang froyd’ and not ‘san-fwa’. However, no one (as has been pointed out) pronounces ‘rendezvous’ according to English phonetics. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-quixotic/214562.md?page=3)