cavalier

• n. 騎士；武士；對女人獻殷勤
• adj. 傲慢的；漫不經心的；無憂無慮的
• n. (Cavalier)人名；(法)卡瓦利耶

來自拉丁詞caballus, 馬。即騎馬的戰士。

來自cavalier, 騎士。後用於貶義，自以人高人一等的。比較chivalrous, 彬彬有禮的。

cavalier

cavalier: [16] Etymologically, a cavalier is a ‘horseman’. The word comes via French cavalier from Italian cavaliere, which was derived from Latin caballus ‘horse’, either directly or via late Latin caballārius ‘horseman, rider’. From the beginning in English its connotations were not those of any old horserider, but of a mounted soldier or even a knight, and before the end of the 16th century the more general meaning ‘courtly gentleman’ was establishing itself.

This led in the mid-17th century to its being applied on the one hand to the supporters of Charles I, and on the other as an adjective meaning ‘disdainful’. Italian cavaliere was also the source of cavalleria ‘body of horsesoldiers’, which was borrowed into English in the 16th century, via French cavallerie, as cavalry. (The parallel form routed directly through French rather than via Italian was chivalry.)
=> cavalry, chivalry

cavalier (n.)

1580s, from Italian cavalliere "mounted soldier, knight; gentleman serving as a lady's escort," from Late Latin caballarius "horseman," from Vulgar Latin caballus, the common Vulgar Latin word for "horse" (and source of Italian cavallo, French cheval, Spanish caballo, Irish capall, Welsh ceffyl), displacing Latin equus (see equine).

Sense advanced in 17c. to "knight," then "courtly gentleman" (but also, pejoratively, "swaggerer"), which led to the adjectival senses, especially "disdainful" (1650s). Meaning "Royalist adherent of Charles I" is from 1641. Meaning "one who devotes himself solely to attendance on a lady" is from 1817, roughly translating Italian cavaliere-servente. In classical Latin caballus was "work horse, pack horse," sometimes, disdainfully, "hack, nag." "Not a native Lat. word (as the second -a- would show), though the source of the borrowing is uncertain" [Tucker]. Perhaps from some Balkan or Anatolian language, and meaning, originally, "gelding." The same source is thought to have yielded Old Church Slavonic kobyla.

cavalier (adj.)

"disdainful," 1650s, from cavalier (n.). Earlier it meant "gallant" (1640s). Related: Cavalierly.

1. The Editor takes a cavalier attitude to the concept of fact checking.

《編輯》雜誌對於核對事實這一點采取無所謂的態度。

來自柯林斯例句

2. The government takes a cavalier attitude to the problems of prison overcrowding.

政府對監獄擁擠不堪的問題不聞不問。

來自《權威詞典》

3. Nor was that wonderful, seeing how cavalier had been the captain's answer.

他的擔心是不足為奇的,因為船長剛才的回答很不客氣.

來自英漢文學 - 金銀島

4. He was a youth again in feeling -- a cavalier in action.

在情感上他又成了年輕人 -- 一個馳騁情場的騎士.

來自英漢文學 - 嘉莉妹妹

5. The cavalier defeated all the antagonists.

那位騎士打敗了所有的敵手。

來自辭典例句