adelantado

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish adelantado, from Spanish adelantar (“to advance, to promote”).

Why this word is great

ADELANTADO — [Noun] A title granted by Spanish monarchs in the 15th-17th centuries, conferring governorship of a province or authority to conquer foreign territories. From Spanish adelantado (past participle of adelantar, "to advance, promote"), derived from adelante ("in front"), ultimately from Latin ad- ("to") + ante ("before"). Unlike "gobernador" (a steward of established rule) or "conquistador" (a free agent of plunder), the adelantado was both sword and seal, a paradox of sanctioned violence. It is the creak of a caravel's timbers off Hispaniola, the ink drying on a parchment that divides the New World into fiefdoms, the uneasy silence of a conquered city where the governor’s mansion rises atop razed temples. Power, when granted in advance of the land itself, is always a gamble.

noun

  1. A title bestowed by the king on certain nobles in the 15th-17th centuries, who granted them governorship of a province or charged them with conquering a foreign territory“The grand master[…]communicated it to the principal chiefs on the borders ; among others , to Don Pedro Henriquez , adelantado of Andalusia , Don Juan de Silva , count of Cifuentes , Don Alonso de Aguilar , and the marquis of Cadiz .”