Dulcinea
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 sweetheart, ladylove
- 2 A mistress; a sweetheart. obsolete
"I must ever have some Dulcinea in my head."
- 3 a woman who is a man's sweetheart wordnet
Example
More examples""Then your worship understands rhyming too?" "And better than thou thinkest," replied Don Quixote, "as thou shalt see when thou carriest a letter written in verse from beginning to end to my lady Dulcinea del Toboso, for I would have thee know, Sancho, that all or most of the knights-errant in days of yore were great troubadours and great musicians, for both of these accomplishments, or more properly speaking gifts, are the peculiar property of lovers-errant: true it is that the verses of the knights of old have more spirit than neatness in them.""
Etymology
From Spanish Dulcinea, the name of Don Quixote's mistress in Cervantes' romance. The name in Spanish is derived from Latin dulce, from Latin dulcis.
From Spanish Dulcinea, from Dulcinea del Toboso, the mistress of the affections of Don Quixote.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.