querencian.
/kɛˈrɛnsɪə/, U.S. /kɛˈrɛn(t)siə/, /kɛˈrɛntʃiə/ 1. Bullfighting. The part of the arena where the bull takes its stand.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > fighting or baiting animals > bullfighting or bullfight > [noun] > arena > part of
barrera1924
querencia1932
tercio1932
1932 E. Hemingway Death in Afternoon xiii. 150 A querencia is a place the bull naturally wants to go to in the ring; a preferred locality. That is a natural querencia and such are well known and fixed, but an accidental querencia is..a place which develops in the course of the fight.
1957 R. Campbell Portugal vi. 115 He [sc. the bull] may choose his querencia for some strategical advantage—near the body of a dead horse, for instance.
1974 F. Nolan Oshawa Project i. 3 Some taunted fighting bull seeking its querencia.
1999 Tennessean (Nexis) 30 May 6 k The bullfighter needs to know where the ‘querencia’ of each bull is in each ring so they can keep the bull away from this place.
2. figurative. A person's favourite place; home ground, a refuge.
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the world > space > place > [noun] > where one operates
beat1721
querencia1944
turf1962
patch1963
1944 ‘Palinurus’ Unquiet Grave ii. 49 The individual also is a moving mirror or screen..and yet the screen is always being guided to reflect one film rather than another, always seeking a chosen querencia.
1952 R. Campbell Lorca i. 8 Andalusia is Lorca's querencia.
1977 A. Scholefield Venom iii. 98 Returning always to the centre of the gold carpet for there, like a bull in a ring, he had instinctively made his querencia, his territory.
2006 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 5 Aug. 12 Jenkins used to pick out an area in the warm-up track. His querencia, he called it, after the bulls' comfort zone .
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1932