|Don Quixote character| Rocinante. Detail of the Cervantes
monument in Madrid (L. Coullaut, 1930) |Created by||Miguel de
Cervantes| Rocinante is Don Quixote's horse in the novel Don
Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. In many ways, Rocinante is not
only Don Quixote's horse, but also his double: like Don Quixote,
he is awkward, past his prime, and engaged in a task beyond his
capacities. Rocín in Spanish means a work horse or low-quality
horse, but can also mean an illiterate or rough man. There are
similar words in French (roussin; rosse), Portuguese (rocim),
and Italian (ronzino). The etymology is uncertain. The name is a
complex pun. In Spanish, ante has several meanings and can
function as a standalone word as well as a suffix. One meaning
is "before" or "previously". Another is "in front of". As a
suffix, -ante in Spanish is adverbial; rocinante refers to
functioning as, or being, a rocín. "Rocinante," then, follows
Cervantes' pattern using ambiguous, multivalent words, common
throughout the novel. Rocinante'