adelantado

noun

ade·​lan·​ta·​do

ˌa-də-ˌlän-ˈtä-(ˌ)dō

plural -s

: a civil and military governor of a province in Spain or her colonies

Word History

Etymology

Spanish, from past participle of adelantar to put ahead, advance, from adelante ahead, from a- (from Latin ad-) + delante before, in front of, alteration of obsolete denante, from de of, from (from Latin) + enante before, in front of, from Late Latin in ante, from Latin in + ante before

First Known Use

1588, in the meaning defined above

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