Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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A place of fabulous wealth, or an opportunity to obtain it. During the gold rush many adventurers believed that California would be their El Dorado. The name comes from the name of a legendary South American city of stupendous riches sought by Spanish conquistadores.
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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El Dorado
city, seat (1843) of Union county, southern Arkansas, U.S., 100 miles (160 km) south of Little Rock. The site was selected in 1843 by county commissioners Robert Black, John Hampton, and Green Newton, who were instructed to locate centrally the county seat. Its Spanish name (meaning "place of riches") was supposedly given by Matthew Rainey, a storekeeper and the town's first settler. Lumber and cotton were the basic products before oil was discovered in 1921 in the Busey Well, resulting in an economic boom. Oil production and refining, petrochemicals, poultry products, financial services, and timber are now major industries. Conservation methods pioneered in the nearby Shuler Field have been adopted nationwide by the oil industry.
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