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 late F. bachelier is corrupted in the termination, as is the 16th c. Eng. bachelour, bachelor: cf. ANCESTOR, 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 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. trans. 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. 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. 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. E. Paget, Owlet of 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.
† 5. A maid, a single woman. Obs. rare.
1632. B. Jonson, Magn. 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-like a., like, or of the nature of, a bachelor; bachelor-room, a room occupied by a single man. (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.
1862. W. Stewart, Footsteps Beh. Him, II. 46. Never, perhaps, had his bachelor-room looked so bare and cheerless as upon this night.
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.
