Matador

来自Big Physics

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Spanish, literally ‘killer’, from matar ‘to kill’, from Persian māt ‘dead’; senses relating to games are extended uses, expressing a notion of ‘dominance’.


Ety img matador.png

wiktionary

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Borrowed from Spanish matador(“killer”). Used in the English language as title for a bullfighter, however referred to as a torero in Spain.


etymonline

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matador (n.)

"the slayer of the bull in a bull-fight," 1670s, from Spanish matador, literally "killer," from matar "to kill," which is of uncertain origin. Probably from Latin mactāre "to kill," originally "to honor by sacrifice," but this presents phonetic difficulties: "the regular evolution of this Latin base would have yielded *meitar in Portuguese and *mechar in Spanish" [Eva Núñez Méndez, "Diachronic Applications in Hispanic Linguistics"]. The alternative might be Arabic mata "he died," from Persian (see second element in checkmate). Fem. form is matadora.