bachelor
(ˈbætʃələ(r))
Forms: 3–6 bacheler, 3–7 -iler, 4–5 -ilere, -iller, -illier, bachler(e, -elere, 5– -ylere, baculere, 5–6 bachelar, 6 batchellour, -elar, bacchelaure, 6–7 batcheler, -ellor, -eller, batchler, 7 bachelaur, -elour, 7–8 batchelour, 8 bachellour, 5– bachelor.
[a. OF. bacheler = Pr. bacalar, It. baccalare:—L. type *baccalāris, of doubtful origin. The later F. bachelier is corrupted in the termination, as is the 16th c. Eng. bachelour, bachelor: cf. ancestor n., and see -or. The original meaning being uncertain, the sense-development is also doubtful.
Of med.L. baccalāris only a few late instances occur (in sense 1), which might be from the mod. langs. (see Du Cange, Bacularis). It was, however, prob. connected with baccalāria, a division of land, of which the size and nature varied at different times, and with the adjectives baccalarius, -aria, applied in 8th c. to rustics male and female who worked for the colonus or tenant of a mansus. (See Deloche, Cartulaire de Beaulieu Introd. éclairc. xxii.) But the precise relation of *baccalāris to these words, and its subsequent history are still uncertain. Still more doubtful is its derivation: baccalaria is with some probability referred to bacca, late L. and Romanic for vacca cow, through *baccālis (cf. ovīlis from ovis sheep), in which case it might be ‘grazing farm,’ and baccalarius one employed on it, the assistant of a colonus who had not a mansus of his own; Littré (without accounting for the sense) suggests Celtic bachall stick (a. L. baculus); the Welsh bach ‘little’ must be definitely discarded, its old Celtic form being bicc- or becc-, Irish becc. (Thurneysen.)]
1. a. A young knight, not old enough, or having too few vassals, to display his own banner, and who therefore followed the banner of another; a novice in arms. [On this sense was founded the conjectural etymology of bas chevalier.]
| 1297 R. Glouc. 453 Syre ȝong bacheler..þow art strong & corageus. a 1300 Cursor M. 8541 He was a borli bachelere, In al þat werld had he na pere. c 1386 Chaucer Sqr.'s T. 16 Yong, fressh, strong, and in Armes desirous, As any Bacheler [v.r. bachiler(e, -elere, -illier] of al his hous. 1415 Pol. Poems (1859) II. 125 Passe we all now in fere, duke, erle, and bachelere. c 1500 Partenay 1925 This knight is A worthi baculere. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. i. cclxiv. 390 Let sir Johan Chandos do his by himselfe, sythe he is but a bacheler. 1818 Hallam Mid. Ages (1872) I. 195 Vavassors who obtained knighthood were commonly styled bachelors. |
b. Hence, Knight Bachelor, a knight of the lowest but most ancient order; the full title of a gentleman who has been knighted (without belonging to any one of the specially named ‘orders’).
| 1609 tr. Sir T. Smith's Commw. Eng. 25 He [a banneret] being before a batcheler knight, is now of a higher degree. 1614 Selden Titles Hon. 336 These Knights..were anciently call'd Baccalaurei, or Bachelors. 1809 Tomlins Law Dict., Knight-bachelor a simple knight, and not knight-banneret, or knight of the bath. 1883 Whitaker's Alm. 108 Knights Bachelors: a list of those Gentlemen [in number 278] who have received the honour of knighthood. |
† 2. A junior or inferior member, or ‘yeoman,’ of a trade-guild, or City Company. Obs.
(In London, their position and functions seem to have varied at different times, and in different Companies; in later times Bachelors were appointed only for ceremonial occasions, chiefly when one of the Company was chosen Lord Mayor, their duty being ‘to serve in foynes and budge’ on Lord Mayor's Day. So in Bye Laws of Grocers' Company of 1711.)
| [1390 Archives of Grocers' Comp. 76 Eslieuxz Mesteres dez Grocers Roberd Peper et Herri Hatton Bacheleres.] 1427 in Heath Grocers' Comp. (1869) 5 Diuerse persones ikallyd Bacheleris. 1533 Wriothesley Chron. (1875) I. 18 A barge also of Batchlers of the Majors crafte. 1691 Blount Law Dict. s.v., Every Company of the Twelve, consists of a Master, two Wardens, the Livery, (which are Assistants in Matters of Council, or at the least, such as the Assistants are chosen out of) and the Bachelors, who are yet but in expectance of Dignity among them, and have their Function only in attendance upon the Master and Wardens. 1809 Tomlins Law Dict. s.v., The bachelors, in other companies called the yeomanry. |
3. a. One who has taken the first or lowest degree at a university, who is not yet a master of the Arts. (In this use, a woman may now be Bachelor of Arts, etc.)
[In this sense, latinized as baccalarius, subsequently altered by a pun or word-play to baccalaureus as if connected with bacca lauri laurel berry, which has sometimes been gravely given as the ‘etymology.’]
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. Prol. 90, I sauh þer Bisschops Bolde and Bachilers of diuyn. c 1386 Chaucer Frankl. T. 398 His felawe..was that tyme a Bacheler of lawe. 1577 Harrison England i. ii. iii. 79 They ascend higher unto the estate of batchelers of art after foure yeares. 1614 Selden Titles Hon. 55 Dominus is now familiar for Sir to euery Batcheler of Art in the Schools. 1673 Ray Journ. Low C. 18 Every Batchelor is called Doctissimus. 1843 Sir J. Coleridge in Arnold's Life & Corr. I. i. 9 Of the scholars several were bachelors. |
† b. transf. An inexperienced person, a novice. Obs.
| 1604 T. Wright Passions Mind iv. i. 114 Some men will dispute..about matters exceeding their capacitie..I haue heard these batchellors hold talke..wilfully and obstinatly in matters of Philosophie and Diuinitie. |
4. a. An unmarried man (of marriageable age).
| c 1386 Chaucer Merch. T. 34 Bacheleris [v.r. bachilers, -elerys, -elers, -illiers] haue often peyne and wo. c 1450 Songs & Carols (1847) 35 If thou be a bachelar, And bryngest hom a wyfe. 1547 J. Harrison Exhort. Scottes 223 She was to olde a mayde for so yonge a bachelar. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. 24 The syngle lyfe of Bacchelaures. 1607 Dekker Northw. Hoe iv. Wks. 1873 III. 53 His wife!..I haue heard him sweare he was a bachiler. 1750 Johnson Rambl. No. 18 ¶5 The unsettled, thoughtless condition of a batchelor. 1856 F. Paget Owlet Owlst. 151 A series of bachelor-incumbents. 1875 Whitney Life Lang. ix. 156 Nursery..dialect, offensive to the ears of old bachelors. |
b. bachelor's wife: the ideal wife of which a bachelor theorizes or dreams.
| 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 61 Bachelers wiues, and maides children be well tought. 1726 Vanbrugh Prov. Husb. i. i, Ay! ay!..Bachelors' wives, indeed, are finely governed. 1854 H. Miller Sch. & Schm. (1858) 503 The ‘bachelor's wife’..occupies a large place in our literature, as the mistress of all the poets who ever wrote on love without actually experiencing it. |
c. transf. One of the young male fur-seals which are kept away from the breeding-grounds by the adult bulls. (These are the seals which may legally be killed for their fur.)
| 1874 Harper's Monthly Mag. May 801/2 To the right and left of the breeding grounds stretch sand-beaches..upon which the ‘hollus-chickie’, or the bachelor seals, lie by tens of thousands. 1884 H. W. Elliott Seal Isl. Alaska 43 The ‘hollus-chickie’ or ‘bachelor’ seals. Ibid. 44 Sports and pastimes of the young ‘bachelors’. 1897 D. W. Thompson in Parl. Papers CII. 422 We saw a body of about 200 bachelors, mostly young or old, those of intermediate ‘killable’ size being very few. 1898 D. S. Jordan et al. Fur Seals i. 50 The bachelor seals begin to arrive at about the same time as the bulls... The older bachelors come first. |
d. A size of roofing slate (see quot. 1929).
| 1898 in E.D.D. 1914 M. S. Gretton Corner of Cotswolds ix. 175 The tiles for our roofs are called, according to their sizes, long wivets, long bachelors, short bachelors, longbecks..muffities, long days, and short days. 1929 N. Lloyd Building Craftsmanship x. 93/1 Sizes of..slates, measuring from centre of peg hole to tail, in inches, are Long bachelors 11 Short bachelors 10½. |
e. Canad. Ellipt. for bachelor-apartment or bachelor-flat (sense 6). (Advertisers' jargon.)
| 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 13 Jan. 45/1 (Advt.), Opposite High Park, Bachelors,..2-bedrooms and 3-bedrooms. 1970 Ibid. 28 Sept. 26/5 Newly decorated large bachelors; short lease. 1973 Toronto Star 5 Mar. 45/2 Vaughan Rd.—St. Clair, interesting bachelor, in older bldg. 1978 Ibid. 12 Aug. c13/3 Bachelors, 1 bedroom & 2 bedrooms. |
† 5. A maid, a single woman. Obs. rare.
| 1632 B. Jonson Magnet. Lady ii. i, He would keep you A batchelor still..And keep you not alone without a husband, But in a sickness. |
6. Comb. bachelor girl, woman, an unmarried woman who has her own income and lives independently; also (rare) bachelor-lady, bachelor-maid; bachelor('s) (or bachelors') hall: see hall n. 11; bachelor-like a., like, or of the nature of, a bachelor; bachelor party, one for men only, esp. one marking the end of a bridegroom-to-be's bachelorhood; also bachelor-dinner; bachelor-room, a room occupied by a single man; also bachelor-apartment, bachelor-cottage, bachelor-flat, bachelor-quarters: occupied by a bachelor. (Also attrib. in 1 a and 4 above.)
| 1611 Cotgr., Bachelier, Bachelerly, bacheler-like. 1824 W. Irving Braceb. Hall II. 80 To talk in a very bachelor-like strain about the sex. 1857 Dickens Dorrit ii. xxx. 591 Ah, but he lived in a sweet bachelor-apartment. 1862 W. Stewart Footsteps Beh. Him II. 46 Never had his bachelor-room looked so bare and cheerless. 1864 Dickens Mut. Fr. (1865) I. xii. 109 Mr. Mortimer Lightwood and Mr. Eugene Wrayburn..had taken a bachelor cottage near Hampton. 1894 C. C. Harrison (title) A Bachelor Maid. 1895 Dialect Notes I. 396 Bachelor-girl, a maiden lady. 1898 G. E. Mitton (title) A Bachelor Girl in London. 1898 Wright Eng. Dial. Dict. I. 108/2 Bachelor woman is common, spinster being unknown. 1902 Daily Chron. 15 Sept. 3/6 The bachelor woman who earns from two guineas a week. 1902 Town & Country 4 Oct. 21/2 In Baltimore, among the first events of the autumn season was the bachelor dinner given at the Baltimore Club last Saturday in honor of Mr. John T. Love, whose marriage to Miss Ellen Jenkins George will shortly take place. 1906 Queen 10 Nov. 808/2 The term ‘old maid’ is now seldom or never heard; the expression ‘bachelor girl’ has taken its place. 1912 Dreiser Financier lxxiii. 762 He occupied a bachelor apartment in North Fifteenth Street. 1921 S. McKenna Educ. E. Lane i. 42 If one of your brothers saw fit to invite my sister to a bachelor flat. 1922 Bachelor-party [see binge n.]. 1924 J. M. Murry Voyage xii. 229 I've been in here as a bachelor lady. 1934 H. Brighouse Exhibit C in Best One-Act Plays of 1933 35 (stage direction) A minimum of furnishing indicates..that this is a bachelor flat. 1954 T. S. Eliot Confid. Clerk ii. 62 I've come to inspect the new bachelor quarters. 1955 Amer. Speech XXX 298. A way of living no doubt explains bachelor girl and not any consideration of gender. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. B3/1 (Advt.), Accommodation..from bachelor apartment to 6-bedroom home..in some of Ottawa's finest locations. |
bachelor's or bachelors' buttons (Herb.): a name given to various flowers of round or button-like form; chiefly to certain cultivated double varieties of wild flowers; orig. and commonly, the double variety of a common yellow buttercup, Ranunculus acris; also the Tansy. white bachelor's buttons: orig. a double-flowered white Ranunculus (R. aconitifolius); also Double White Campion (Lychnis vespertina), Double Sneezewort (Achillæa Ptarmica), Double Feverfew (Pyrethrum Parthenium). red bachelor's buttons: Double Red Campion (Lychnis diurna), some species of Scabious and of Centaurea, the Ragged Robin (Lychnis Flos-cuculi), etc. See Britten and Holland Plant Names (1878).
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens 422 The double Goldcuppes are..called..Bachelers Buttons. 1592 Greene Upst. Courtier (1871) 7 The bachelors buttons whose virtue is to make wanton maids weep. 1597 Gerard Herbal (1633) 472 The similitude these flowres have to the jagged cloath buttons anciently worne..gave occasion..to call them Bachelours Buttons. 1629 Parkinson Paradisi v. 11 Batchelours' buttons, both white and red, are kindes of wilde Campions of a very double forme. 1872 Oliver Elem. Bot. i. vii. 86 If you compare a Bachelor's Button with a wild Buttercup. |
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▸ bachelor pad n. colloq. the home of, or a dwelling suited to, a single man.
| 1959 Chicago Daily Tribune 7 June vii. 5/1 When you have a *bachelor pad, you can ask your best girl to play hostess at your shindigs. 1976 Milton Keynes Express 28 May 39 (advt.) An ideal bachelor pad conveniently situated with bedroom, bathroom, lounge, kitchen, etc. 2008 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 25 Jan. g8 Units range from 300-square-foot bachelor pads to 600-square-foot, one-bedroom suites. |