What does picador mean?
Picador denotes the mounted bullfighter who plays a distinctive role in a traditional Spanish-style bullfight. Using a brightly colored cape, the picador attracts the bull's attention, controls the direction of its charges, and places banderillas, decorated barbed sticks, into the bull's shoulders. This performance weakens the bull and allows the matador to enter the arena for the final stage of the fight. The term is used chiefly in Spain, Spanish-speaking countries, and English-language accounts or discussions of bullfighting. It comes from Spanish and should not be confused with matador: although both words refer to bullfighters, they identify different roles within the traditional corrida. Picador is therefore a precise term for the cape-and-banderillas performer rather than a general synonym for every person who participates in a bullfight.
nounA picador is a bullfighter who provokes the bull with a cape and places banderillas in its shoulders. In a traditional Spanish-style bullfight, the picador is mounted and is distinct from the matador, who fights the bull with a sword.
- In Spanish-style bullfighting, the mounted bullfighter who provokes the bull with a cape and places banderillas in its shoulders.
"The picador drew the bull's attention with his yellow cape before placing the banderillas."
"The bull charged as the picador swept the cape across the sand."
"Her account of the traditional bullfight explained the differing roles of the picador and the matador."
The standard English plural is picadors; it refers to multiple bullfighters performing that role.
"Accounts of the bullfights described the picadors as skilled handlers of the charging animals."
A picador's dangerous job is to make a bull charge—and then stay close enough to place the banderillas.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does picador come from?
The word comes from Spanish, where picador is formed from picar, meaning “to prick, pierce, or peck,” together with the agent-forming suffix -dor. In bullfighting, the word refers to the performer whose task is to provoke and weaken the bull. Spanish picar and forms such as picadura and pica belong to the same pic- family of words associated with pricking or piercing, while picot is a related form in another Romance language.
How picador is actually used
This is chiefly a specialist sporting term in English. It is not ordinarily used for an ordinary participant or spectator, and figurative uses are uncommon in standard usage.
Easily confused with picador
A picador uses a cape and banderillas to provoke and weaken the bull, whereas a matador is the principal bullfighter who confronts the bull with a sword and normally delivers the final blow.