Batchelor

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A man who has never married ; a person who has earned a first degree from a university ; a young knight who served under the banner of a more senior knight
2. An unwed man living single ; someone holding an undergraduate academic degree ; a squire-like young knight fighting beneath another knight's standard
3. A man who has not married ; a graduate holding a first-level degree from college or university ; in medieval times, a junior knight who followed a superior's flag

Etymology: "Batchelor" is an archaic spelling of "bachelor," and the two share the same long journey from Medieval Latin into English. The word came into Middle English as "bacheler," borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Old French, where it appeared in the form that modern French has kept as "bachelier." Behind that lies the Medieval Latin "baccalarius," a term for a young man who was not yet a full knight or master. That original sense is the surprise. A medieval bachelor was a squire or apprentice-level figure, someone who had not yet earned the full rank he aspired to, and only later did the word settle into its modern meaning of an unmarried man. The Tuscan "baccalare," meaning squire, shows the same root travelling through Italian, which keeps the older military and social sense alive in a neighbouring language.