bachelor means A person, especially a man, who is socially regarded as able to marry, but has not yet. It carries an Arena rating of 1514, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, bachelor ranks #1,591 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #1,870 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,877 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #4,289 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
bachelor is pronounced /ˈbæt͡ʃ.ə.lə(ɹ)/.
Why “bachelor” is a great word
An unmarried man of marriageable age, or a person holding the first academic degree conferred by a university. From Middle English *bacheler*, from Anglo-Norman and Old French *bacheler* (modern French *bachelier*), from Medieval Latin *baccalārius*, *baccalāris*, originally referring to a young knight or a low-ranking feudal vassal. Unlike "spinster," with its pejorative weight of unwanted solitude, or "graduate," a general term for any level of study, "bachelor" floats with a neutral, enviable lightness. It conjures the deliberate sparseness of a rented apartment, the ceremonial formality of a parchment scroll, and the heraldic loneliness of a knight without a liege—a state of provisional independence, poised between what is expected and what is chosen.
Etymology
From Middle English bacheler, from Anglo-Norman and Old French bacheler (modern French bachelier), from Medieval Latin baccalārius, baccalāris (compare Tuscan baccalare (“squire”)).
noun
- A person, especially a man, who is socially regarded as able to marry, but has not yet.e.g.“As merry and mellow an old bachelor as ever followed a hound.” — 1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC:
- The first or lowest academic degree conferred by colleges and universities; a bachelor's degree.
- Someone who has achieved a bachelor's degree.
- A bachelor apartment.
- An unmarried woman.e.g.“A bachelor still, by keeping of your portion :
And keep you not alone without a husband” — 1632 (first performance), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “The Magnetick Lady: Or, Humors Reconcil’d. A Comedy […]”, in The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The Second Volume. […] (Second Folio), London
- A knight who had no standard of his own, but fought under the standard of another in the field.
- Among London tradesmen, a junior member not yet admitted to wear the livery.
- A kind of bass, an edible freshwater fish (Pomoxis annularis) of the southern United States.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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