[Sp. el the, dorado gilded, pa. pple. of dorar to gild.] The name of a fictitious country (according to others a city) abounding in gold, believed by the Spaniards and by Sir W. Raleigh to exist upon the Amazon within the jurisdiction of the governor of Guiana.
1596. Raleigh (title), Discoverie of … Guiana, with a relation of the great and Golden Citie of Manoa (which the Spanyards call El Dorado).
1622–62. Heylin, Cosmogr., IV. (1670), 1085. Letting pass these dreams of an El Dorado, let us descend [etc.].
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 411. Unspoil’d Guiana, whose great Citie Geryon’s Sons Call El Dorado.
b. fig.
1797. Hartford Courant, 15 May, 1/4. New England, quickened by industry, is the El Dorado of romance.
1827. J. F. Cooper, Prairie, I. i. 15. A band of emigrants seeking for the Eldorado of their desires.
c. 1860. Wraxall, trans. R. Houdin, i. 2. How often, in my infantile dreams, did a benevolent fairy open before me the door of a mysterious El Dorado.
