El Dorado

'The Golden One' or 'The Guilded One'. During many pre-imperialist native meso-american rituals, one or more people would cover their bodies with gold dust, usually to symbolize themselves as the Sun God or his disciples. This was supposedly quite a startling sight when the first european coquerers saw it, and many Spanish soldiers truly believed they were seeing ghosts or phantasms.

El` Do*ra"do (?), pl. El Doradoes (). [Sp., lit., the gilt (sc. land); el the + dorado gilt, p. p. of dorare to gild. Cf. Dorado.]

1.

A name given by the Spaniards in the 16th century to an imaginary country in the interior of South America, reputed to abound in gold and precious stones.

2.

Any region of fabulous wealth; exceeding richness.

The whole comedy is a sort of El Dorado of wit. T. Moore.

© Webster 1913.