Where does “esquire” come from?
esquire (Middle English) comes from Old French escuier, from Latin scūtārius, from Latin scūtum, from Proto-Indo-European skei-, from Proto-Indo-European sek- — to cut, cut off, sever.
Ancestry of “esquire”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Old French | escuier | squire; shield-bearer |
| 2 | Latin | scūtārius | of a shield, belonging to a shield |
| 3 | Latin | scūtum | a type of shield: the scutum, the large oblong wooden shield carried by the Roman infantry |
| 4 | Proto-Indo-European | skei- | to cut, to divide, to separate; to cut, split; to... |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | sek- | to cut, cut off, sever |