Cavaliers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group of mounted soldiers, often referring to those serving in the royalist army during the English Civil War
2. individuals characterized by a gallant, dashing manner
3. people showing a lack of concern for seriousness or responsibilities

Etymology: Horses gave this word its start. Its Latin ancestor "caballus" meant "horse", and it likely came from a Gaulish word for a nag, a sense that also survives in Welsh "ceffyl" and Irish "capall". Late Latin turned it into "caballarius" for a horseman, and that passed through Old Occitan and Old Italian, where it meant a mounted soldier or knight, before reaching French as "cavalier". English took the word from French and first recorded it in a translation by Peter Whitehorne around 1562. Earlier English forms such as "cavalero" and "cavaliero" show the word settling in gradually before the spelling stabilised. The plural "cavaliers" is the form of that noun, so it names the group of horsemen. The royalist sense from the English Civil War came later, when supporters of King Charles I were nicknamed after these mounted soldiers.

Synonyms: knights, gentlemen, horsemen, nobles, aristocrats

Antonyms: peasants, commoners, serfs, workers, laborers