Esq

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A written abbreviation of a courtesy title added after a man's name, most often used in the United States to mark an attorney
2. An abbreviated honorific appended to a person's name in formal address, today chiefly signaling that he or she is a lawyer
3. A short form of a formal title that follows a name on letters and documents, commonly identifying a practicing attorney

Etymology: The abbreviation "esq." is a shortened form of "esquire", and the word's most surprising fact is that it began as a military job title rather than a mark of rank. The Old French "escuyer" meant "shield-bearer", an attendant who carried a knight's shield, and it came from Late Latin "scutarius", "shieldmaker or shield-bearer", built on Latin "scutum", "shield". The English form "esquier" arrived in Middle English, and the word later shed its first syllable to become "squire". Over time the meaning climbed the social ladder. A squire was a young man training for knighthood, and the title came to denote a gentleman of landed status just below a knight. Its shortened written form "esq." was then placed after a man's name as a mark of gentle standing.