desfacer

An archaic form of deshacer (to undo), from Old Spanish — best known today through Don Quijote's declaration, in Part I, Chapter XIX, that his mission in life is "andar por el mundo enderezando tuertos y desfaciendo agravios" ("to roam the world righting wrongs and undoing injuries"). Long obsolete outside quoting or discussing that passage.

• Cervantes escribe que don Quijote se dedica a desfacer agravios. — Cervantes writes that Don Quixote devotes himself to undoing wrongs.
• La frase "desfacer entuertos" se popularizó como un resumen algo libre de la misión del caballero. — The phrase "desfacer entuertos" became popular as a somewhat loose summary of the knight's mission.
• Hoy nadie usaría desfacer fuera de una cita o referencia literaria. — Nobody today would use desfacer outside a quote or literary reference.

The phrase people usually quote is "desfacer entuertos," but Cervantes's actual text reads "enderezando tuertos y desfaciendo agravios" — the two nouns (tuertos/agravios) got swapped in popular memory over the centuries.

Often confused with deshacer.

• quote "...enderezando tuertos y desfaciendo agravios" (Don Quijote de la Mancha, Parte I, Cap. XIX) — Verified: this is Don Quixote's own description of his knightly mission in Cervantes's novel. The popular paraphrase "desfacer entuertos," often quoted as if it were the original line, swaps the nouns and isn't Cervantes's actual wording.