Forms: 6 cauallere, (cabbaleer, caueelere), 6–7 cavallier, 7 cavaliere, -leer(e, cavaglier, (by perversion) caviler, Sc. cavaleire, cavelleir, 6– cavalier. Also (from Spanish) 6 cavallero, cauilero, caualeiro, 6–7 cavaliero, 7 cavalero, 8 cavalliero. [Originally adopted in the form cavallero, cavaliero, etc., from Sp., with occasional use of the It. and Pg. forms. The actual form cavalier is a. F. cavalier (16th c. in Littré), ad. It. cavaliere, f. cavallo horse + -iere, a termination often occurring in Italian for L. -ārius. The late L. caballārius (-e·rius) ‘horseman’ gave Sp. caballero (OSp. cav-), Pg. cavalleiro, Pr. cavallier, ONF. cavailler, cavaler, OF. and F. chevalier, whence also Eng. CHEVALIER.]
A. sb.
1. A horseman, esp. a horse-soldier; a knight.
[c. 1470. Hors, Shepe, & G. (1822), 3. In duche a rider is called a Knyght, Aragon tonge doth also specyfye Caualero, which in that partie Is named of worship & toke begynnyng Of spores of gold and chiefly of rydyng.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, Gloss. 249. Cauaglere, an Italian word … signifieth a Gentleman seruing on horsebacke.]
1600. Hakluyt, Voy., III. 691. That so many cavalleros should all faile in this one attempt.
1640–1. Kirkcudbr. War-Comm. Min. Bk. (1855), 51. That all brave cavaleires will tak the business to hart.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Cavalier, Cavalero, a knight or gentleman, serving on horseback, a man of arms.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), II. 526. Of our cavaliers, or of our foot-soldiers.
1807. Sir R. Wilson, Jrnl., 2 July. I returned … decked with mud; but as my horse was seen to fall I did not appear as a dishonoured cavalier.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, I. III. 97. A mute wonder held The Trojan cavaliers.
2. A gentleman trained to arms, ‘a gay sprightly military man’ (J.); gen. a courtly gentleman, a gallant. (Like gallant, also applied about 1600, to a roistering swaggering fellow.)
1589. Pasquil’s Ret., A iij. How now Caualiero, are you come to Scripture?
1593. Prodigal Son, III. 103. Our guest is a free-handed Cavalier.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., V. iii. 62. Ile drinke to M. Bardolfe, and to all the Cauileroes about London.
1599. Warn. Faire Wom., II. 589. Some swaggering, swearing, drunken, desperate Dicke. Call we them Cabbaleers? masse, they be Canniballes.
1600. Rowlands, Lett. Humours Blood, 3. Humours is late crown’d king of Caueeleres.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., III. 175. The tidings of his birth brought not to cavalliers, but to quiet and simple Shepherds.
1651. Life Father Sarpi (1676), 25. Signor Alphonso Antomini a Cavaglier of the most sublime vertues.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, I. IV. 170. Some little dispute … which had oblig’d him to seek the satisfaction of a Cavalier.
1777. Garrick, Prol. Sheridan’s Sch. Scand. He’ll fight—that’s write—a cavalliero true.
1867. Emerson, May-Day, Wks. (Bohn), III. 413. To greet staid ancient cavaliers.
b. A gentleman attending upon or escorting a lady, a ‘gallant,’ a ‘squire’ (cf. 5); a lady’s partner in a dance.
1752. Mrs. Lennox, Fem. Quix., II. IX. ii. 213. The rest of the cavaliers and ladies.
1765. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, VII. xliii. I’ll take a dance, said I … we want a cavalier, said she, holding out both her hands, as if to offer them.
1825. Lytton, Zicci, 34. He wants to be your cavalier, not your husband. Ibid. (1829), Disowned, 99. Do come, Mr. Linden will be our cavalier.
[1847. Thackeray, Mrs. Perkins’s Ball, Cavalier seul. This is my friend Bob Hely, performing the Cavalier seul in a quadrille.]
c. As a title or term of address.
1589. Nashe (title), The Returne of the renowned Caualiero Pasquill [etc.].
1598. Shaks., Merry W., II. iii. 77. Caualeiro Slender, goe you through the Towne to Frogmore.
3. A name given to those who fought on the side of Charles I. in the war between him and the Parliament; a 17th-c. Royalist.
Originally reproachful, and applied to the swash-bucklers on the king’s side, who hailed the prospect of war; cf. CAVALIERISH, -ISM.
1641–2. [see quot. 1651].
1642. D’Ewes, MS. Journ., 10 Jan. 1641 (Harl. MS. 162 lf. 312 b). Certain Hamletters … informed vs of some of the Ingeneers in the Tower to be dangerous men and that some caualiers had gone in thither.
1642. Ld. Kimbolton’s Sp. in Parl., 4. (not authentic) Ill affected cavaleers and commanders about the Court.
1642. (June 10) Propositions of Parlt., in Clarendon V. (1702), I. 504. Several sorts of malignant Men, who were about the King; some whereof, under the name of Cavaliers, without having respect to the Laws of the Land, or any fear either of God or Man, were ready to commit all manner of Outrage and Violence.
1642. Petition Lords & Com., 17 June, in Rushw., Coll., III. (1721), I. 631. That your Majesty … would please to dismiss your extraordinary Guards, and the Cavaliers and others of that Quality, who seem to have little Interest or Affection to the publick Good, their Language and Behaviour speaking nothing but Division and War.
1642. Charles I., Answ. Petition, 17 June, 8. The language and behaviour of the Cavaliers (a word by what mistake soever it seemes much in disfavour).
1642. Catal. Pamphlets Harl. Libr.. xxiii. 101/1. No. 325. A Perfect Declaration of the barbarous and cruel Practices committed by Prince Robert, the Cavalliers, and others in his Majesty’s Army.
1651. Lilly, Monarchy, 107. [Speaking of what he witnessed during Christmas of 1641–2] The Courtiers againe, wearing long Haire and locks, and alwayes Sworded, at last were called by these men [the Puritans] Cavaliers; and so after that this broken language had been used a while, all that adhered unto the Parlament were termed Round-heads, all that tooke part or appeared for his Majestie Cavaliers, few of the vulgar knowing the sence of the word Cavalier.
1656. Cromwell, Sp., 17 Sept. Your old enemies, the Papists and Cavaliers.
1656. R. Lane, in Hatton Corr. (1878), 14. The poore cavilers are by proclamation banishd the towne.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 125, ¶ 1. When the Feuds ran high between the Round-heads and the Cavaliers.
1864. H. Spencer, Illustr. Univ. Progr., 62. The Puritans, disapproving of the long curls of the Cavaliers, as of their principles.
4. Fortification. ‘A work generally raised within the body of the place, ten or twelve feet higher than the rest of the works … to command all the adjacent works and country round’ (Stocqueler).
1560. Whitehorne, Ord. Souldours (1573), 18 b. Caualiers, or platformes.
1590. Marlowe, 2nd Pt. Tamburl., II. iv. 102. Raise cavalieros higher than the clouds, And with the cannon break the frame of heaven.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, V. i. 126. These Caualleres ought in no wise to be made within the bulwarkes.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, I. I. 23. He rais’d by the industry of an Italian Engineer, a Cavalier.
1799. Baird, in Owen, Disp. Wellesley, 127. The whole of the ramparts, and every cavalier in the fort, were … in the possession of our troops.
1860. Times, 3 Nov., 7/6. In the centre of the front face … is a high cavalier mounting two large brass Chinese guns.
ǁ 5. Cavalier-servant, or in It. form cavaliere-servente (F. cavalier-servant): a man who devotes himself wholly to attendance on a lady as her professed slave, either from love or from gratitude. Hence cavalier servitude, cavaliere-serventism (nonce-formations).
1817. Byron, Beppo, xl. Ibid. (1820), Lett., Wks. (1846), 153/1. The conventual education, the cavalier servitude. Ibid. (1823), Juan, IX. li. Which hovers oft about some married beauties, Called ‘Cavalier Servente.’
1878. Fraser’s Mag., XVIII. 38. Neither married life nor conventional cavaliere-serventism was prolific of inspiration.
B. attrib. or adj. † 1. Gallant. Obs.
a. 1641. Suckling, Fragm. Aurea (1648), 94. The people are naturally not valiant, and not much cavalier.
† b. Of things: Fine, ‘brave,’ ‘gallant.’ Obs.
1670. Lassels, Voy. Italy, I. 130. One of the most cavalier curiositys a man can see in Italy.
2. a. Careless in manner, off-hand, free and easy. b. Haughty, disdainful, supercilious.
1657. Hawke, Killing is M., To Rdr. Cavalier and nimble wits.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pic. (1779), II. xxxvii. 25. This cavalier declaration of the young man.
1817. Mar. Edgeworth, Ormond, xiv. (1832), 149. Very cavalier, indeed, to go out to walk, without waiting to see us.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., VI. XVI. xv. 314. This cavalier tone from an unknown person … did not please me.
3. In reference to the 17th c.: Royalist.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, I. III. iii. 292 (L.). An old Cavalier family.
1868. Q. Rev., No. 248. 358. Robert South was the very type of a Cavalier preacher, in the proper sense of the term.
4. attrib. and Comb., as cavalier riding habit, cavalier-hat, a hat with a feather worn by ladies in imitation of those worn by the Royalists in the time of Charles I.; cavalier-poet (applied to Lovelace).
1666. Evelyn, Diary, 13 Sept. The Queene was now in her cavalier riding habite, hat and feather, and horseman’s coate.
1860. Sala, Make Your Game, 151 (Hoppe). Ladies with ravishing bonnets and cavalier-hats.
1879. McCarthy, Own Times, III. 436 (Hoppe). The fine lines of the cavalier-poet, which remind his mistress that he could not love her so much, loved he not honour more.
Hence Cavalieress (nonce-wd.); Cavaliership.
1872. ‘Mark Twain,’ Innoc. at Home, xxi. (Hoppe). Every street was … packed with charging cavaliers and cavalieresses.
1594. Nashe, Unfort. Trav., Wks. 1883–4, V. 60. Did I cashier the new vocation of my caualiership? Ibid. (1596), Saffron-Walden, Wks. 1883–4, III. 153. His Caualiership … is lewder by nine score times than his Poetry.
