Cavalier

How to spell cavalier

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce cavalier

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cavalier mean?

1. adjectiveShowing an arrogant or careless disregard for important matters or other people's feelings.

Cavalier in a sentence

• The manager took a cavalier attitude toward the safety rules.

• His cavalier approach to the budget worried the whole finance team.

Where does cavalier come from?

Language of origin: French

This word travelled into English from the French cavalier, which itself came from the Italian cavaliere, meaning a horseman or knight. The deeper root is the Late Latin caballarius, 'horseman', built on caballus, the everyday Latin word for a working horse or nag (as opposed to the grander equus). When English adopted it in the 1500s it first meant a mounted soldier or a courtly gentleman, and during the English Civil War 'Cavalier' became the nickname for the dashing, often haughty supporters of King Charles the First. That reputation for swaggering, careless confidence is exactly how the adjective sense, meaning offhand or dismissive, developed. The same caballus root also gives us 'cavalry' and the Spanish 'caballero', so the silent shared idea of the horse explains the otherwise tricky -val- in the middle of the spelling.

How the word is built

• caval- (from Latin caballus: horse)
• -ier (agent/noun suffix, via French)