etymology of bachelor

Bachelor

In contrast with the term ‘spinster ‘.

When looking at the oxford dictionary, the earliest record of when bachelor was first used in 1297.In which was used to describe young knights, by which had positive connotations such as strong, courageous, brave. This term addresses no stigmatisation due to an unmarried status. The nature of the term spinster is used to shame and attach a negative label to whoever is described as one, however evidence of the late 13^th century suggests that the male equivalent term used to describe the exact same unmarried status, is one that has had connotations of strong and brave; something people would look up to.

The word then has been modified in 1883 in which whomever is labelled as bachelor is described as someone who has been knighted- a gentleman who has received the honour of knighthood. This adds weight to the connotations of bachelor being of a positive light – someone who has been knighted is known to be someone who is strong, courageous and brave. This again has no relevance to the negative label of not being married – or even touches focus on the issue if the man is unmarried. “1883 Whitaker's Almanack 108 Knights Bachelors: a list of those Gentlemen [in number 278] who have received the honour of knighthood.”

In my opinion, the term bachelor has changed its meaning and what it is addressing, however it has still carried positive connotations as in today’s context, if someone is described as a bachelor- it is not frowned upon and contains connotations of strong, wealth and independence. Especially in today’s society, you wouldn’t refer to an unmarried woman as bachelor as it is a strongly marked form. No ‘knights’ are referred to as a ‘her’ or ‘she’ in these definitions, suggesting that bachelor, in this context specifically, is potentially also a marked form and that women wouldn’t have been included in this definition even in the 19^th century. This has then had the effect of removing women from this definition of being strong, courageous and brave, therefore this has potentially removed women from being described as similar positive labels when being stated as unmarried. An example of today’s context this is that bachelor is often paired in the term with eligible; meaning if a man was described as this they are considered to be a particularly desirable potential husband, usually due to wealth, social status or other specific personal qualities. This is still describing an unmarried man, however the term ‘eligible spinster’ is not used and wouldn’t make sense if it was used due to the term ‘spinster’ creating negative connotations.

The word ‘ bachelor’ has changed from its primary meaning over time, in which it began to mean an unmarried man in the late 19^th century, meaning that the word has changed meaning to be a man worthy of the honour of being knighted, to man who simply isn’t married.

There is evidence that displays a wide use of this word, for example there are different spellings of the word such as bachiler, bachillier, baculere, Bachler. The extent of the phonology within one word suggests that there has been a wide use of the word from many different areas; displaying the popularity of it.