Ditto Skammer.
Hmm. I’m not sure I’ve got time in my schedule for a pronunciation crusade, but if anyone asks me for a second opinion I’ll be sure to pass on your details.
The second book of Don Quijote was published in 1612, 7 years after the first, and the adjective ‘quijotesco’, our ‘quixotic’ was common enough to be used in the book. So, if ‘quixotic’ hadn’t entered English usage by 1612, it did as soon as the book was translated into English…Apparently Thomas Shelton did the first English translation, and one site lists book 2 as being translated in 1615, another in 1620, so I’m not sure
FWIW, the Hebrew pronounciation is also (generally) KEE-SHOT. Hebrew is related to Arabic, so it’s probably a parallel transliteration process at work here… it would have been just as easy to pronounce KEE-KHOT or KEE-KHOT-EH, don’t know how that SH sound got in (and in two languages, yet!)
And yes, Quichotte would be pronouced KEE-SHOT in French. So that makes three. **
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Spanish, prior to the 16th or 17 century, did not have the aspirated “h” sound that is represented nowadays by “j” or soft “g”. “J”, when it was used at all, was a variant form of the letter “i”.
What Spanish did have was “x”, which was pronounced like the “sh” in English “shoe”. So when Don Quijote was written, it was spelled “Quixote” and pronounced “Qui-shó-te”. The “x” sound wavered, and eventually was absorbed into “j” (aspirated “h”). That is also why we have such alternate spellings as “México” and “Méjico” and “Texas” and “Tejas”.
On further search, it appears that the Hebrew version was made from the German:
Can any German speaker corroborate this? Is it KEESHOT in German as well, as this source claims?
FTR…the laughter was not at the Egyptian instructor’s pronunciation, per se, but at the unexpected utterance of “Donkey Shot” from an extremely religious Egyptian Christian.
…guess you had to be there. 
Possibly one reason that the defenders of “kee-HOE-tic” are so adamant in spite of all the evidence that they are wrong is that, to my American Midwestern ear anyway, “kwik-SAH-tic” sounds ugly, awkward, and wrong. I first saw “quixotic” in print before I had ever heard of Don Quixote, so I assumed that it was pronounced the way it was spelled. My first though was “Gee, what an ugly word.” Then some time later I saw the play and though “Oh… kee-HOE-tee… kee-HOE-tic… that’s much better.” Turns out I was right the first time. Damn.
I say it “key oat ik”, but I’m a pun lovin’ guy:) .
D-a-i-r-y Q-u-e-e-n
Me, I’d say that Don Kee-hoat-aye behaved kwickzahtically.
The word would not be pronounced as in Spanish, because it is Anglicized. You would, of course, pronounce it in Spanish if it were a Spanish word (“quixotico”), but it is not. We pronounce words that we have directly borrowed form other languages as they would be pronounced in the language from which we borrowed it (“rendezvous”, “pizzicato”, etc.), but the suffix “-ic” is English, and therefore it is an English word and would be pronounced as in English.
So many ways to pronounce it: chivalrous, chimerical, idealistic, utopian, visionary, benevolent, bold, brave, courageous, courteous, gallant, gentlemanly, heroic, noble-minded, sublime, valorous, romantic, absurd, high-minded, honorable, intrepid, knightly, lofty, magnanimous, manly,
I like the sound of kwik sah tic. It always makes me think of words like quick, exotic, and quirky. The word is a poet’s word, filled with implications and connotations.
But how do you pronounce “Panzatic”?
As are those who are trying to get “quixotic” pronounced differently.
I think you’ll find the only instance in which American-English adopts a more foreign pronunciation than the British is when the word has its roots in Spanish. I assume this is because the US is right next to Mexico, Latin America, etc.
I doubt that American-English, when encountering words that should carry their original weight in French, German, Dutch or any other language, would take in general a more foreign pronunciation than English-English.
Then again, it’s possible I’m entirely wrong.
I’d pronounce it ‘quick-SAH-tic’ (well, quick-SOH-tic), but if the word is really derived from Don Quixote, it would make more sense to pronounce it ‘kee-OH-tic’…
Yes, but as I wrote in my post, “quixotic” is NOT a Spanish name. it is an English word derived from a Spanish name, and as such, is pronounced as in English.
FWIW, the OED of 1979 lists the correct pronunciation of Quixote as Kwi ksot (with a long O and an abrupt T), but also allows as ot, iot and otte are acceptible. Quixotic is rendered as kwiksotik. Curiously while quixotic didn’t make it into print until 1815, Quixotry has been around since 1718
Wow, go figure I’d have just come back to the boards after a long time away.
For the record (and for whatever it’s worth), I’d only heard the “kwik-SAH-tik” pronunciation myself, until I met some people from another site who knew me by the same user name and pronounced it “kee-HO-tik”.
Either way works for me.
Let’s not forget that a lot of languages will adapt a word to make it easier to say if its origins make it a little tough. The ê in French for example is from (IIRC) when the Latin based words like “fenestre” became a little tough to pronounce in the French dialect so it became “fenêtre” with the “e-with-the-hat” pointing out that “es use to be here.”
Or for that matter, liaison in French - pronouncing words that start with a vowel with the word before it. So “les ânes” is pronounced “layzahn” instead of “lay ahn” which is sloppier and makes the flow of speach bumpier. (Or “uglier” as my teachers would say.)
Kee-hot-ic flows out like a hork.
Quick-zotic at least is like “exotic” and more familiar and more readily speakable.