esquire

== English == === Pronunciation === (UK) IPA(key): /ɪˈskwaɪə/ (General American) IPA(key): /ˈɛskwaɪɚ/ Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ) === Etymology 1 === 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. ==== Noun ==== esquire (plural esquires) (usually US, law) A lawyer. A male member of the gentry ranking below a knight. 1875 Herbert Broom and Edward Hadley, notes by William Wait, Commentaries on the laws of England, I-317: Esquires and gentlemen are confounded together by Sir Edward Coke, who observes that every esquire is a gentleman, and a gentleman is defined to be one qui arma gerit, who bears coat-armour, the grant of which was thought to add gentility to a man's family. It is indeed a matter somewhat unsettled what constitutes the distinction, or who is a real esquire; for no estate, however large, per se confers this rank upon its owner. An honorific sometimes placed after a man's name. A gentleman who attends or escorts a lady in public. (archaic) A squire; a youth who in the hopes of becoming a knight attended upon a knight (obsolete) A shield-bearer, but also applied to other attendants. ===== Usage notes ===== In England this title is given to the eldest sons of knights, and the elder sons of the younger sons of peers and their eldest sons in succession, officers of the king's courts and of the household, barristers, justices of the peace while in commission, sheriffs, gentlemen who have held commissions in the army and navy, etc.: but opinions with regard to the correct usage vary. There are also esquires of knights of the Bath, each knight appointing three at his installation. The title now is usually conceded to all professional and literary men. In the United States the title is regarded as belonging especially to lawyers. In legal and other formal documents Esquire is usually written in full after the names of those considered entitled to the designation; in common usage it is abbreviated Esq. or Esqr., and appended to any man's name as a mere mark of respect, as in the addresses of letters (though this practice is becoming less prevalent than formerly). In the general sense, and as a title either alone or prefixed to a name, the form Squire has always been the more common in familiar use. - Century, 1914 See also the Wikipedia article on "Esquire" ===== Derived terms ===== ===== Translations ===== ==== Verb ==== esquire (third-person singular simple present esquires, present participle esquiring, simple past and past participle esquired) (transitive, obsolete) To attend, wait on, escort. === Etymology 2 === Old French esquiere, esquierre, esquarre (“a square”) (whence modern French équerre), perhaps via a form like based esquire from bas d'esquire ("bottom of a square"), whence attested forms base (e)squire, e(s)quire bast. ==== Noun ==== esquire (plural esquires) (heraldry, rare) The lower of the halves into which a square is divided diagonally, a single gyron, but potentially larger (extending across the shield) or smaller (for example, on Mortimer's arms). 1597, Gerard Legh, Armorie, page 154, quoted in the NED: Thre pallets between ij Esquires bast dexter and sinister of the second. === References === “esquire”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “esquire”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volumes II (D–Hoon), New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC. === Further reading === esquire on Wikipedia.Wikipedia === Anagrams === queries == French == === Pronunciation === === Noun === esquire m or f by sense (plural esquires) esquire (a title) === Further reading === “esquire”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012 == Spanish == === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /esˈkiɾe/ [esˈki.ɾe] Rhymes: -iɾe Syllabification: es‧qui‧re === Noun === esquire m (plural esquires, feminine esquire, feminine plural esquires) esquire (an untitled) nobleman; blasonado. An escudero, originally carrying the armour of a knight; a man of the gentry ranking below a knight. ==== Related terms ====