esquire

Meaning

1. A lawyer.
2. A male member of the gentry ranking below a knight.
3. An honorific sometimes placed after a man's name.
4. A gentleman who attends or escorts a lady in public.
5. A squire; a youth who in the hopes of becoming a knight attended upon a knight
6. (obsolete) A shield-bearer, but also applied to other attendants.

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ɪˈskwaɪə/

From Middle English esquier, from Old French escuyer, escuier, properly, a shield-bearer (compare modern French écuyer (“shield-bearer, armor-bearer, squire of a knight, esquire, equerry, rider, horseman”)), from Late Latin scūtārius (“shieldmaker, shield-bearer”), from Latin scūtum (“shield”); probably akin to English hide (“to cover”). The term squire is the result of apheresis. Compare equerry, escutcheon.