Cavalry

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈkævəlɹi/

Definitions

1. Military soldiers who fight while mounted on horseback, or in modern usage, armored vehicle units that fulfill similar rapid assault roles
2. A branch of military forces that engages in combat while riding horses or, in contemporary contexts, utilizes armored vehicles for swift operations
3. This refers to troops that execute battle maneuvers mounted on horses, or in modern times, employ mechanized vehicles for tactical advances

Etymology: The word "cavalry" carries a surprising sibling: it is a doublet of "chivalry". Both descend from the same Latin root, "caballus", a word for a horse that was not originally a prestige term. Its path to a mounted soldier runs through Late Latin "caballarius", meaning a horse-keeper or horseman, which passed into Old Occitan and Italian as "cavaliere", a rider or knight. From that Italian "cavalleria", the sense of a body of mounted men, the word moved into Middle French as "cavalerie" and then into English, where it was recorded from the 1540s. English had already taken the knightly idea through another route, which is why "chivalry" and "cavalry" look so alike yet mean different things: one names the ideals of the knight, the other the horsemen who fought.

Synonyms: mounted troops, horsemen, cavalrymen, troopers, riders

Antonyms: infantry, foot soldiers