Toreador
/ˌtɔːriəˈdɔːr/noun
A bullfighter, especially one in Spanish bullfighting.
Did you know?The famous “Toreador Song” from Bizet’s *Carmen* helped freeze this Spanish bullfighting term into a dramatic, almost mythic image in English.
Etymological Timeline
Latin
Latin
taurus
“bull”
Old Spanish
ES
torear
“to fight bulls; to act as a bullfighter”
Spanish
ES
toreador
“bullfighter”
19th Century
French
toreador
“bullfighter, especially in the theatrical or literary sense”
Modern English
English
toreador
“a bullfighter”