Squire

How to spell squire

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce squire

What does squire mean?

1. nounA young man of good birth who attended a knight and carried his shield and armour while training for knighthood.
2. nounA country gentleman, especially the principal landowner of a rural district.

Squire in a sentence

• The young squire polished the knight's armour before the tournament.

• The local squire owned most of the farmland surrounding the village.

• Each squire hoped one day to be knighted for service in battle.

• Tenants paid their rent to the squire at the manor house.

Where does squire come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is a shortened form of 'esquire', which English took from the Old French escuier, meaning a shield-bearer or attendant. The French word descended from the Late Latin scutarius, 'one who carries a shield', built on scutum, the ordinary Latin word for a shield. In medieval life a young man of good birth would serve a knight, carrying his shield and armour while training for knighthood himself, and that role is the original meaning that came into English in the 1200s. Over the centuries the sense drifted upward in society: by the 1600s a squire was no longer a junior in armour but a respected country gentleman, typically the chief landowner of a district. The dropped opening syllable is the spelling trap, since the silent link to 'esquire' and the qu spelling both come straight from that French and Latin shield.

How the word is built

• squire (aphetic form of esquire, from Old French escuier: shield-bearer)