Banderilla

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A barbed dart used in traditional bullfighting, designed to be placed in the animal's back to weaken it
2. An ornamental, colorful stick employed by matadors during the course of a bullfight
3. A device intended to provoke and elicit a specific response from the bull in the arena, serving both as a practical and symbolic aspect of the event

Etymology: The bullfighting dart takes its name from a flag. In Spanish, "bandera" means "banner" or "flag," and the diminutive suffix "-illa" turns it into "banderilla," a little flag. The name fits the object: the banderilla is a short, barbed stick, often decorated with coloured paper, that the bullfighter plants in the bull's shoulders during the second stage of the fight. English borrowed the term directly from Spanish. The pattern is an ordinary one in that language, where "-illa" and its relatives shrink a noun into something smaller, so the word's literal meaning is simply "small banner." Nothing about the dart's history beyond that name is needed to explain the word.