week word: Quixotic

The Weekword this week, quixotic, is being hosted by Carmen at Tales of a Biomouse. Take a moment to visit her to see her take on the word and the other weekworders who are particiapting. It is always fun and informative, so why not join in? Let Carmen know.

I am going to place the Webster definitions and synonyms at the END of this post for inquiring minds.

I love the word quixotic, and its many implications, but it is not a word I use often, so I don't have a lot of preformed thoughts about it. I did, of course, read Don Quixote, many years ago.

The quick little sketch above represents one of my more positive images of quixotic, one of silly delight and happy explorations.

This morning, my first task was to write a poem on the theme of "quixotic," and below is the poem I wrote. I surprised myself, it was not what I expected to write and does not contain the word quixotic, but instead, an idea of quixotic is contained or reflected in the poem:

From the Teeth of a Shrew

I write microscopic poems, each line etched

on a grain of rice, each grain strung on a gossamer strand

and hung in the trees like holiday garlands,

though the August sun and the abundance

of black-eyed Susans speak of another season. Birds

lift the tiny poems from the trees and weave them

into their nests. Squirrels eat them for breakfast and children

drape them round their necks and set my words

to a music of lilting chants. See how I dance

on the roof-tops, small hands clasped in mine.

If you found a poem in the teeth of a rat

or among the entrails of a mole the cat

dragged in, you might recognize the words,

buffed to a polish with finer and finer scratches,

but torn ragged, first, from dreams

we share.

Mary Stebbins Taitt

for Bill Olsen

(I really dislike the formatting and do not know how to undo it all. I tried rich text, and that put in tons of formatting.)

The young are often quixotic in their idealism, their adventurous spirits, their willingness to do battle for what they believe in. This is my son, in a performance at school. I used to be quixotic, in this sense when I was younger, and wish I could reclaim some of that.

Here is a self-portrait of me, feeling "quixotic," ready to go out adventuring and tilt some windmills:

Of course, I will have to take along my CPAP and some tylenol for my fibromyalgia!

From Webster, the definitions and synonyms:

quix·ot·ic

adj \kwik-ˈsä-tik\

Definition of QUIXOTIC

1

: foolishly impractical especially in the pursuit of ideals;especially : marked by rash lofty romantic ideas or extravagantly chivalrous action

2

: capricious, unpredictable

— quix·ot·i·cal adjective

— quix·ot·i·cal·ly adverb

See quixotic defined for English-language learners »

See quixotic defined for kids »

Examples of QUIXOTIC

1. They had quixotic dreams about the future.
2. quixotic>
3. In … an earnest book-length essay of neo-Victorian public-mindedness that deplores the “nasty, knowing abuse” that the author would have us fear contaminates too much American humor lately, David Denby, a movie critic forThe New Yorker, sets for himself what has to be one of the most quixotic projects that a moral reformer can undertake. —Walter Kirn, New York Times Book Review, 22 Feb. 2009
4. [+]more

Origin of QUIXOTIC

Don Quixote

First Known Use: 1718

Related to QUIXOTIC

Synonyms: idealist, idealistic, quixotical, romantic, starry,starry-eyed, utopian, visionary

Antonyms: clear-eyed, clear-sighted