esquire

Meanings

Noun

• A lawyer.
• A male member of the gentry ranking below a knight.
• A gentleman who attends or escorts a lady in public.
• A squire; a youth who in the hopes of becoming a knight attended upon a knight
• A shield-bearer, but also applied to other attendants.
• A bearing somewhat resembling a gyron, but extending across the field so that the point touches the opposite edge of the escutcheon.

Verb

• To attend, wait on, escort.

Origin

• From Middle English esquier, from Old French escuyer, escuier, properly, a shield-bearer (compare modern French écuyer), from Late Latin scutarius ("shield-bearer"), from Latin scutum ("shield"); probably akin to English hide. The term squire is the result of apheresis. Compare equerry, escutcheon.
• Old French esquiere, esquierre, esquarre