Fwd: A.Word.A.Day--chivalry

["Terry L. Neill" <longshipco@hotmail.com>]

Poster: "Terry L. Neill" <longshipco@hotmail.com>

Apologies to anyone already on the AWAD list who will get this twice.

  - Anarra, I love word origins.



>Date: Sun, 31 May 1998 00:04:49 -0400
>From: Wordsmith <wsmith@wordsmith.org>
>To: linguaphile@wordsmith.org
>Subject: A.Word.A.Day--chivalry
>
>chivalry (SHIV-ahl-ree) noun
>
>   1. The medieval system, principles, and customs of knighthood. 
>
>   2. The qualities idealized by knighthood, such as bravery, 
>      courtesy, honor, and gallantry toward women. A manifestation of 
>      any of these qualities.
>
>   3. A group of knights or gallant gentlemen.
>
>[Middle English chivalrie, from Old French chevalerie, from >chevalier, 
knight.]
>
>WORD HISTORY: The Age of Chivalry was also the age of the horse. 
Bedecked in elaborate armor and other trappings, horses were certainly 
well dressed although they might have wished for lighter loads. That the 
horse should be featured so prominently during the Age of Chivalry is 
etymologically appropriate, because chivalry goes back to the Latin word 
caballus, "horse, especially a riding horse or packhorse." Borrowed from 
French, as were so many other important words having to do with medieval 
English culture, the English word chivalry is first recorded in works 
composed around the beginning of the 14th century and is found in 
several senses, including "a body of armored mounted warriors serving a 
lord" and "knighthood as a ceremonially conferred rank in the social 
system." Our modern sense, "the medieval system of knighthood," could 
not exist until the passage of several centuries had allowed the 
perspective for such a conceptualization, with this sense being recorded 
first in 1765.
> 
>   "Today's behavioral waters are considerably muddier than they 
>    were in April 1912, when the great ship went down, taking many >    
male passengers
>    who sacrificed their lives in the spirit of chivalry."
>    Ann Weber Toledo Blade, Did Chivalry Go Down With the Titanic?,
>    St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 17 Mar 1998.
> 
>This week's theme: words with interesting histories.
> 
>...........................................................................
>You wish to see; listen. Hearing is a step toward Vision. -St. Bernard
> 
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