Tag: Bachelor

A bachelor is a man who is not married (see single person) or who is not in a pair bond. It includes “men who live independently, outside of their parents’ home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating”.
The word is from Anglo-Norman bacheler (later suffixal change to bachelier; cf. escolier “student”, from earlier escoler), “knight bachelor”, a young squire in training, ultimately from Medieval Latin baccalāris (cf. Provençal bacalar, Tuscan bacalaro “squire”), a very low ranking vassal or farm hand. The Old French term crossed into English around 1300, referring to one belonging to the lowest stage of knighthood. Knights bachelor were either poor vassals who could not afford to take the field under their own banner, or knights too young to support the responsibility and dignity of knights banneret. From the 14th century, the term was also used for a junior member of a guild (otherwise known as “yeomen”) or university; hence, an ecclesiastic of an…