Rocinante - wikipedia Rocinante Not to be confused with Rocinate. For other uses, see Rocinante ( disambiguation ). Rocinante ( Spanish pronunciation : ( roθiˈnante ) ) 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. Etymology 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. Rocinante Don Quixote character Rocinante. Detail of the Cervantes monument in Madrid ( L. Coullaut, 1930 ) Created by Miguel de Cervantes Information Species Horse Gender Male 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, which is common throughout the novel. Rocinante 's name, then, signifies his change in status from the `` old nag '' of before to the `` foremost '' steed. As Cervantes describes Don Quixote 's choice of name : nombre a su parecer alto, sonoro y significativo de lo que había sido cuando fue rocín, antes de lo que ahora era, que era antes y primero de todos los rocines del mundo -- `` a name, to his thinking, lofty, sonorous, and significant of his condition as a hack before he became what he now was, the first and foremost of all the hacks in the world ''. In chapter 1, Cervantes describes Don Quixote 's careful naming of his steed : Four days were spent in thinking what name to give him, because ( as he said to himself ) it was not right that a horse belonging to a knight so famous, and one with such merits of his own, should be without some distinctive name, and he strove to adapt it so as to indicate what he had been before belonging to a knight - errant, and what he then was. '' References ^ Jump up to : Mancing, Howard ( 2004 ). `` Rocinante ''. The Cervantes Encyclopedia : L -- Z. Westport, CT : Greenwood Press. p. 618. Jump up ^ Cull, John T. ( 1990 ). `` The ' Knight of the Broken Lance ' and his ' Trusty Steed ' : On Don Quixote and Rocinante ''. Cervantes : Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America. 10 ( 2 ) : 37 -- 53. Jump up ^ de Cervantes, Miguel. Don Quijote, Editorial del Valle de México, 1st edition, p. 3, 1981. ^ Jump up to : Ormsby, John. `` Chapter 1 ''. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Retrieved 2011 - 02 - 18. Miguel de Cervantes 's Don Quixote ( 1606 / 1615 ) Characters Don Quixote Alonso Quijano Sancho Panza Clavileño Dulcinea del Toboso Ginés de Pasamonte Ricote Rocinante Stage The Comical History of Don Quixote ( 1694 play ) Double Falsehood ( 1727 play ) Don Quichotte auf der Hochzeit des Comacho ( 1761 opera ) Don Quixote ( 1869 ballet ) Don Quixote ( 1898 opera ) Don Quichotte ( 1910 opera ) Man of La Mancha ( 1964 musical ) Film Don Quixote ( 1923 ) Don Quixote ( 1933 ) Don Quixote ( 1947 ) Don Quixote ( 1955 -- 1969, unfinished ) Don Quixote ( 1957 ) Dulcinea ( 1963 ) Don Chisciotte and Sancio Panza ( 1968 ) Man of La Mancha ( 1972 ) Don Quijote cabalga de nuevo ( 1973 ) Don Quixote ( 2000 ) Donkey Xote ( 2007 ) Don Quixote ( 2010 ) The Man Who Killed Don Quixote ( 2018 2002 documentary ) Television I, Don Quixote ( 1959 teleplay ) The Adventures of Don Coyote and Sancho Panda Don Quixote Related List of works influenced by Don Quixote Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rocinante&oldid=836443640 '' Categories : Don Quixote characters Fictional characters introduced in 1605 Fictional horses Hidden categories : Articles containing Spanish - language text Pages using deprecated image syntax All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from October 2017 Talk About Wikipedia Brezhoneg Čeština Español Euskara Français Հայերեն Italiano Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Polski Português Русский Suomi Türkçe Українська 7 more Edit links This page was last edited on 14 April 2018, at 21 : 17. About Wikipedia

Question: what is don quixote's horse's name
Answer: Rocinante; Rocinante; Rocinante; Rocinante; Rocinante