There are similar words in English (rouncey), French (roussin or roncin; rosse), Portuguese (rocim), and Italian (ronzino).

As a suffix, -ante in Spanish is adverbial; rocinante refers to functioning as, or being, a rocín.

"Rocinante", then, follows Cervantes's pattern of using ambiguous, multivalent words, which is common throughout the novel.

[citation needed] Rocinante's name, then, signifies his change in status from the "old nag" of before to the "foremost" steed.

[2] As Cervantes describes Don Quixote's choice of name: nombre, a su parecer, alto, sonoro y significativo de lo que había sido cuando fue rocín, antes de lo que ahora era, que era antes y primero de todos los rocines del mundo[4]—"a name, to his thinking, lofty, sonorous, and significant of his condition as a hack before he became what he now was, the first and foremost of all the hacks in the world".