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Origin and history of cavalier

cavalier(n.)

1580s, "a horseman," especially if armed, from Italian cavalliere "mounted soldier, knight; gentleman serving as a lady's escort," from Late Latin caballarius "horseman," from Vulgar Latin *caballus, the common Vulgar Latin word for "horse" (and source of Italian cavallo, French cheval, Spanish caballo, Irish capall, Welsh ceffyl), displacing Latin equus (from PIE root *ekwo-).

In classical Latin caballus was "work horse, pack horse," sometimes, disdainfully, "hack, nag." This and Greek kaballion "workhorse," kaballes "nag" probably are loan-words, perhaps from an Anatolian language. The same source is thought to have yielded Old Church Slavonic kobyla.

The sense was extended in Elizabethan English to "a knight; a courtly gentleman," but also, pejoratively, "a swaggerer." The meaning "Royalist, adherent of Charles I" is from 1641. 

cavalier(adj.)

"disdainful," by 1817, from earlier sense "easy, offhand" (1650s); originally "gallant, knightly, brave" (1640s), from cavalier (n.) in its Elizabethan senses. Related: Cavalierly.

also from 1817

Entries linking to cavalier

caballero(n.)

1861, "a Spanish gentleman," from Spanish caballero, from Latin caballarius, from caballus "a pack-horse, nag, hack" (see cavalier (n.)). It is the equivalent of French chevalier, Italian cavaliere. Also the name of a kind of stately Spanish dance.

cavalcade(n.)

"a procession, a train of persons on horseback or in carriages," 1640s, via French cavalcade (15c.), from Italian cavalcata, from cavalcare "to ride on horseback," from Vulgar Latin *caballicare (also source of Spanish cabalgada, Portuguese cavalgata), from Latin caballus (see cavalier (n.)).

Literally, "a procession on horseback;" the general sense of "a procession" of any sort is from 1660s; in 20c. -cade came to be regarded as a suffix and rode off on its own to form motorcade (1909), etc. The word's earliest use in English was in the now-obsolete sense "a horseback ride" (1590s).

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chevalier
late 14c. (c. 1200 as a surname), "mounted knight, armed horseman of noble birth," from Anglo-French chivaler "mounted knight," Old French chevalier "knight, horseman, knight in chess" (12c., Modern French chevaler), from Late Latin caballarius "horseman" (source of Provençal cav
chivalry
c. 1300, "body or host of knights; knighthood in the feudal social system; bravery in war, warfare as an art," from Old French chevalerie "knighthood, chivalry, nobility, cavalry, art of war," from chevaler "knight," from Medieval Latin caballarius "horseman," from Latin caballus
horse
"solidungulate perissodactyl mammal of the family Equidæ and genus Equus" [Century Dictionary], Old English hors "horse," from Proto-Germanic *harss- (source also of Old Norse hross, Old Frisian, Old Saxon hors, Middle Dutch ors, Dutch ros, Old High German hros, German Roß "horse
solitary
mid-14c., solitarie, "alone, by oneself or itself, living alone," from Anglo-French solitarye and Old French solitaire, from Latin solitarius "alone, lonely, isolated," from solitas "loneliness, solitude," from solus "alone" (see sole (adj.)). Of places, "remote from society, unf
Nicholas
masc. proper name, from French Nicolas, from Latin Nicholaus, Nicolaus, from Greek Nikolaos, literally "victory-people," from nikē "victory" (see Nike) + laos "people" (see lay (adj.)). The saint associated with Christmas (died 326 C.E.) was a bishop of Myra in Lycia, patron of s
bail
"bond money, security given to obtain the release of a prisoner," late 15c., a sense that apparently developed from that of "temporary release (of an arrested person) from jail" (into the custody of another, who gives security for future appearance at trial), which is recorded fr
heel
"back of the foot," Old English hela, from Proto-Germanic *hanhilaz- (source also of Old Norse hæll, Old Frisian hel, Dutch hiel), from a diminutive of PIE *kenk- (3) "heel, bend of the knee" (source also of Old English hoh "hock"). Meaning "back of a shoe or boot" is c. 1400. Do
Caucasian
1807, of or pertaining to the Caucasus Mountains (q.v.), with -ian. Applied to the "white" race 1795 (in Latin) by German anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840), who in his pioneering treatise on anthropology distinguished mankind into five races: Mongolian, Ethio
concern
early 15c., of persons, "to perceive, distinguish;" also, of things, "to refer to, relate to, pertain to," from Old French concerner (15c.) and directly from Medieval Latin concernere "concern, touch, belong to," figurative use of Late Latin concernere "to sift, mix as in a sieve
sad
Old English sæd "sated, full, having had one's fill (of food, drink, fighting, etc.), weary of," from Proto-Germanic *sathaz (source also of Old Norse saðr, Middle Dutch sat, Dutch zad, Old High German sat, German satt, Gothic saþs "satiated, sated, full"), from PIE *seto-, from

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