El Cid

1 9.1

A Spanish knight from long ago who is a famous hero in a poem about his deeds

proper noun

Literature

: El Cid

The exploits of El Cid are immortalized in Spain's national epic, "El Cantar de mio Cid."

Examples

Many historians regard El Cid as one of Spain's greatest heroes.
Schoolchildren in Spain often study the life of El Cid in their history classes.
The story of El Cid is well-known in Spain.
Have you read the epic poem about El Cid?
Many historians regard El Cid as one of Spain's greatest heroes.
Schoolchildren in Spain often study the life of El Cid in their history classes.
The exploits of El Cid are immortalized in Spain's national epic, "El Cantar de mio Cid."

Surface Forms

El Cid main

Morphology

El + Cid

This is a proper name and a culture-specific historical reference; knowing the parts ('El' and 'Cid') does not enable a B1 learner to infer it denotes a legendary Spanish nobleman or epic hero. The constituents are not productive English lexical items with compositional meaning, so the referent is unpredictable from the words alone.

Etymology

El Cid comes from an old Arabic title 'al-sayyid', which means 'the lord' or 'master'. People used this title for the real man Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar because he was a strong leader, so El Cid became the name for Spain's famous hero.