bachelor的词源
英文词源
- bachelor
- bachelor: [13] The ultimate origins of bachelor are obscure, but by the time it first turned up, in Old French bacheler (from a hypothetical Vulgar Latin *baccalāris), it meant ‘squire’ or ‘young knight in the service of an older knight’. This was the sense it had when borrowed into English, and it is preserved, in fossilized form, in knight bachelor. Subsequent semantic development was via ‘university graduate’ to, in the late 14th century, ‘unmarried man’.
A resemblance to Old Irish bachlach ‘shepherd, peasant’ (a derivative of Old Irish bachall ‘staff’, from Latin baculum, source of English bacillus and related to English bacteria) has led some to speculate that the two may be connected. English baccalaureate [17] comes via French baccalauréat or medieval Latin baccalaureātus from medieval Latin baccalaureus ‘bachelor’, which was an alteration of an earlier baccalārius, perhaps owing to an association with the ‘laurels’ awarded for academic success (Latin bacca lauri meant literally ‘laurel berry’).
- bachelor (n.)
- c. 1300, "young man;" also "youthful knight, novice in arms," from Old French bacheler, bachelor, bachelier (11c.) "knight bachelor," a young squire in training for knighthood, also "young man; unmarried man," and as a university title, of uncertain origin, perhaps from Medieval Latin baccalarius "vassal farmer, adult serf without a landholding," one who helps or tends a baccalaria "field or land in the lord's demesne" (according to old French sources, perhaps from an alteration of vacca "a cow" and originally "grazing land" [Kitchin]). Or from Latin baculum "a stick," because the squire would practice with a staff, not a sword. "Perhaps several independent words have become confused in form" [Century Dictionary]. Meaning in English expanded early 14c. to "young unmarried man," late 14c. to "one who has taken the lowest degree in a university." Bachelor party as a pre-wedding ritual is from 1882.
中文词源
在中世纪的欧洲，骑士是非常重要的社会角色，通常只有贵族出生的人才能成为骑士。一个人要想成为骑士，必须从小接受训练，并逐级升级。从7岁起，他将作为“侍童”（page）在其他贵族家庭中接受骑士礼仪的教育。等他年满14岁后，他可以作为“侍从”（squire）跟随在骑士身边，接受骑士战斗训练，并随同骑士参加各种骑士比武和战斗。等年满21岁以后，他可以被册封为“见习骑士“（bachelor），可作为辅助部队跟随主力部队参加战斗，积累作战经验。他所擎的旗帜为带有分叉的燕尾期（pennon），以表明其级别。等到他积累了足够的战斗经验并立有战功后，可以申请剪去燕尾，成为一名“方旗骑士”（banneret）。方旗骑士是真正的骑士，是作战的主力部队，所擎旗帜为长方形，称为“banner”，故此得名“方旗骑士”。
英语单词bachelor本来表示“见习骑士”，是成为真正的骑士的前一级别。13世纪初叶，法国巴黎大学首创了学位制度，学位分为学士、硕士和博士三个级别。获得硕士或博士学位意味着可以进入教师同业行会，招徒授课，而学士学位仅仅表示成为教授的候选者，还处于见习阶段，尚不能招徒授课，这跟“见习骑士”的含义一样，所以学士就用bachelor一词来表示。
由于“见习骑士”和“学士”一般都是年轻男子，往往尚未结婚，所以后来bachelor一词逐渐产生了“尚未结婚的年轻人”，男女均可，但在美式英语中，人们又仿造了bachelorette一词来表示“未婚女子”。
bachelor： ['bætʃələ] n.学士，单身汉
bachelorette： [bætʃələ'ret] n.未婚女子
该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：bachelor 词源，bachelor 含义。
来自拉丁词bacilum, 杆，棍。原指旧时骑士跟班，持一根木棍跟随骑士学习。
该词用来指“单身汉”并不是太久远以前的事。早先它一度指“单身者”，不分性别。英国剧作家、诗人、评论家琼森(Ben Jonson，L572?- 1637)在他的喜剧《有魅力的女人》（The Magnetic Lady，I632）中就用了bachelor一词指“单身女人”。该词源自古法语bachelor（青年人），中世纪拉丁词baccalaris（佃农）。从其最早词源来看，bachelor带有“生手”的含义。这也反映在它的另一词义“学士（学位）”上。在当代英语中，由于妇女运动的影响，bachelor的用法有了些变化，它常被用作定语，表示“单身”，如bachelor girl／woman（单身女子，独立生活的未婚女子），bachelor mother（单身母亲，未婚母亲）等。从bachelor还派生出bachelorette 一词，意指“年轻的单身女子”。
来源于古法语bacheler,进一步的词源不明。
