E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Maritor’nes (Spanish, bad woman).
A vulgar, ugly, stunted servant-wench, whom Don Quixote mistakes for a lord’s daughter, and her “hair, rough as a horse’s tail,” his diseased imagination fancies to be “silken threads of finest gold.” (Cervantes: Don Quixote.)
