Sancho Panza

American  

[san-choh pan-zuh, sahn-chaw pahn-thah] / ˈsæn tʃoʊ ˈpæn zə, ˈsɑn tʃɔ ˈpɑn θɑ /

noun

1. the credulous and amusing squire of Don Quixote.

---

Sancho Panza Cultural  

1. In Don Quixote, the down-to-Earth peasant who accompanies the idealistic, deluded Don on his adventures. Sancho is a delightful coward, more interested in material comfort and safety than in performing courageous acts.

---

Example Sentences

Referring to the PM's comments, the minutes add: "We did not pursue our self-interest with the ruthless determination of the US and France. We had tended to play Sancho Panza to the US Don Quixote."

From BBC • Dec. 30, 2019

This research was ultimately used to provide a colourfully debauched backdrop to The Extra Man, in which Ames’s relationship with his roommate was recast as a modern day Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

From The Guardian • Nov. 24, 2018

Sancho Panza is left to an orchestra violist, in this case Miriam Manasherov, an Israeli.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 12, 2018

We ended the week with her high-fiving the life-size sculptures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza that stand guard in front of Cervantes’s home.

From New York Times • Sep. 6, 2016

I remembered the words of Sancho Panza: An adventuring knight is someone who’s beaten and then finds himself emperor.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover