word of the day: coadjutator

word of the day: coadjutator

context:

Miss Bianca, the leader of the Mouse Prisoners’ Aid Society, is trying to get a race horse to join her in the rescue mission. When she introduces herself, Miss Bianca is surprised to find the horse has heard of her: “Miss Bianca’s distinguished services to humanity have made her famous indeed!” the horse says.

‘My own family tree boasts a famous lady also,’ said he, ‘though but collaterally. Her name was — Rosinante.’

‘The coadjutator of Don Quixote?’ supplied Miss Bianca swiftly.

‘Perhaps you have seen her portrait?’ said [the horse] with a smile. ‘Dear me, she’d hardly have won a Selling Plate! But it is the spirit that counts, even more than the bone; and it seems she had great magnanimity.’

“Coadjutator” seems to be a variant spelling of “coadjutor.”

coadjutor definition (Merriam-Webster): one who works together with another

Full understanding of this passage requires some sense of who Don Quixote is, what a Selling Plate is, and the meanings of the words coadjutator, collaterally, and magnanimity. A Selling Plate is, according to Wiktionary, “a horse race after which the winning horse is auctioned off.” I’d assumed it was a collector’s plate, or something more like a trophy or souvenir. Challenging for a child reader!

source:

The Turret

by Margery Sharp

illustrations by Garth Williams

1963. Little, Brown, & Co., Boston