The Etymology of Matador
Matador entered English in 1681 already wearing its full Spanish costume. In Spanish it is simply matador — the killer — formed from matar (to kill) plus the agent suffix -dor. The verb matar has two competing pedigrees that scholars still debate. The Romance hypothesis derives it from Vulgar Latin *mattāre, possibly a re-formation of Latin mactāre (to slaughter, especially as ritual sacrifice), connecting matador to the priestly act of killing an animal at altar. The other hypothesis points to Arabic māt (he died), the same word preserved in chess as checkmate (Arabic shāh māt, the king is dead) — a plausible route given the long Moorish presence in Iberia. In the Spanish bullfighting tradition the matador is the senior torero who performs the elaborate cape work of the final third and delivers the killing thrust with the estoque. English uses the word almost exclusively in this technical sense.