cavalier
Part of speech: adj
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: architecture
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Celtic *kaballosder.?
Late Latin caballus
Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.
Proto-Italic *-āzijos
Late Latin -āriusnom.
Late Latin -ārius
Late Latin caballāriusder.
Old Occitan cavalierbor.
Old Italian cavalierebor.
Middle French cavalierbor.
English cavalier
First appears c. 1562 in a translation by Peter Whitehorne. Borrowed from Middle French cavalier (“horseman”), itself borrowed from Old Italian cavaliere (“mounted soldier, knight”), borrowed from Old Occitan cavalier, from Late Latin caballārius (“horseman”), from Latin caballus (“horse”), probably from Gaulish caballos 'nag', variant of cabillos (compare Welsh ceffyl, Breton kefel, Irish capall), akin to German (Swabish) Kōb 'nag' and Old Church Slavonic кобꙑла (kobyla) 'mare'. Previous English forms include cavalero and cavaliero. Doublet of caballero and chevalier.
Inflected forms:
form: more cavalier
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most cavalier
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: cavaliers
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Lacking the proper care or concern for something important, reckless, rash, high-handed.
pos: adj
examples: But, on the following day, no sign of Poirot. I was getting angry. He was really treating us in the most cavalier fashion.
Such a cavalier attitude might seem to suggest that doctors consider the uterus as dispensable an organ as, say, an appendix—and some feminists have accused the medical profession of just such callousness […]
For another example, see Palumbo, Rudd, and Whelan (2006), who found that several empirical consumption papers from the 1980s and 1990s took a cavalier approach to deflation and measurement that unfortunately affected their results.
gloss: High-spirited.
pos: adj
gloss: Supercilious.
pos: adj
gloss: Free and easy; unconcerned with formalities
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: Leporello (a surname that proved the antechamber not to be wholly illiterate), far from resembling Don Juan’s trembling valet, was a handsome young man, with an animated face, nimble in gait, and of cavalier manners; wearing elegantly enough the clothes which had, doubtless, appertained to his master; and evidently quite the pet of the ladies present, and paying assiduous court to Mademoiselle Astarté, the queen of the party.
gloss: Of or pertaining to the party of King Charles I of England (1600–1649).
pos: adj
tags: historical
gloss: A military man serving on horse, (chiefly) early modern cavalry officers who had abandoned the heavy armor of medieval knights.
pos: noun
tags: historical
gloss: A gallant: a sprightly young dashing military man.
pos: noun
tags: historical
gloss: A gentleman of the class of such officers, particularly
pos: noun
gloss: A gentleman of the class of such officers
pos: noun
tags: historical
gloss: Someone with an uncircumcised penis.
pos: noun
tags: slang
examples: The roundheads in the school showers easily equalled the cavaliers.
Since penile preference is so tied up with personal aesthetics and body image, it seems both logical and fair to leave the choice of cavalier or roundhead to the owner of the organ, thus avoiding the sort of life-long pain expressed in a comment like this:[…]
I knew about the English Civil War, Cavaliers (wrong but romantic) versus Roundheads (right but repulsive), but I didn't think that was what he was talking about. I shook my head. “It means our willies aren't circumcised,” he explained. "Are you a cavalier or a roundhead?”
gloss: A defensive work rising from a bastion, etc., and overlooking the surrounding area.
pos: noun
Related words: caballero
Derived words: beaglier
Cavachon
cavalierish
cavalierism
cavalierly
cavalierness
cavaliership
Cavoodle
klavalier
uncavalier
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: кавалер
roman: kavaler
lang: Danish
word: kavaler
lang: Finnish
word: herrasmies
lang: French
word: cavalier
lang: German
word: Kavalier
lang: Irish
word: cúirteoir
lang: Irish
word: gaige
lang: Macedonian
word: кавале́р
roman: kavalér
lang: Portuguese
word: cavalheiro
lang: Russian
word: кавале́р
roman: kavalér
lang: Russian
word: ры́царь
roman: rýcarʹ
lang: Spanish
word: caballero