different between esquire vs squire

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??skwa??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??skwa??/

Etymology 1

Borrowed 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 scutarius (“shield-bearer”), from Latin scutum (“shield”); probably akin to English hide (“to cover”). The term squire is the result of apheresis. Compare equerry, escutcheon.

Noun

esquire (plural esquires)

1. A lawyer.
2. 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.

3. An honorific sometimes placed after a man's name.
4. A gentleman who attends or escorts a lady in public.
5. (archaic) A squire; a youth who in the hopes of becoming a knight attended upon a knight
6. (obsolete) A shield-bearer, but also applied to other attendants.
   • 1801, Joseph Strutt, The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England

     The office of the esquire consisted of several departments; the esquire for the body, the esquire of the chamber, the esquire of the stable, and the carving esquire; the latter stood in the hall at dinner, carved the different dishes, and distributed them to the guests.

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

• Esquire bedel - See bedel

Translations

Verb

esquire (third-person singular simple present esquires, present participle esquiring, simple past and past participle esquired)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To attend, wait on, escort.

Etymology 2

Old French esquiere, esquierre, esquarre (“a square”)

Noun

esquire (plural esquires)

1. (heraldry) A bearing somewhat resembling a gyron, but extending across the field so that the point touches the opposite edge of the escutcheon.

References

• esquire in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914) , “esquire”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, volume II (D–Hoon), revised edition, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., OCLC 1078064371.

Further reading

• esquire on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• queries

French

Noun

esquire m or f (plural esquires)

1. esquire (title)

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?skwa??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?skwa???/
• Rhymes: -a??(?)

Etymology 1

From Middle English esquire, from Old French escuier, from Latin sc?t?rius (“shield-bearer”), from sc?tum (“shield”).

Noun

squire (plural squires)

1. A shield-bearer or armor-bearer who attended a knight.
2. A title of dignity next in degree below knight, and above gentleman. See esquire.
3. A male attendant on a great personage.
4. A devoted attendant or follower of a lady; a beau.
5. A title of office and courtesy. See under esquire.
6. (Britain, colloquial) Term of address to a male equal.
   • 1969, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Dead Parrot sketch

     Sorry squire, I've had a look 'round the back of the shop, and uh, we're right out of parrots.

Derived terms

• squirearchy
• squiress

Translations

Verb

squire (third-person singular simple present squires, present participle squiring, simple past and past participle squired)

1. (transitive) To attend as a squire.
   • 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue,” lines 303-307,^[1]

     And yet of our apprentice Ianekyn,

     For his crisp heer, shyninge as gold so fyn,

     And for he squiereth me bothe up and doun,

     Yet hastow caught a fals suspecioun;

     I wol hym noght, thogh thou were deed to-morwe.

2. (transitive) To attend as a beau, or gallant, for aid and protection.
   • 1753, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom, Chapter 48, ^[2]

     On some occasions, he displayed all his fund of good humour, with a view to beguile her sorrow; he importuned her to give him the pleasure of squiring her to some place of innocent entertainment; and, finally, insisted upon her accepting a pecuniary reinforcement to her finances, which he knew to be in a most consumptive condition.

   • 1759, Oliver Goldsmith, “On Dress,” in The Bee, 13 October, 1759,^[3]

     Perceiving, however, that I had on my best wig, she offered, if I would ’squire her there, to send home the footman.

   • 1812, Henry Weber (ed.), The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, Volume 3, p. 326, footnote 3,^[4]

     To man a lady was, in former times, a phrase similar to the vulgar one at present in use, to squire.

   • 1821, Walter Scott, Kenilworth, Chapter 4,^[5]

     Yes, such a thing as thou wouldst make of me should wear a book at his girdle instead of a poniard, and might just be suspected of manhood enough to squire a proud dame-citizen to the lecture at Saint Antonlin’s, and quarrel in her cause with any flat-capped threadmaker that would take the wall of her.

   • 1936, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, Part One, Chapter 1,^[6]

     And raising good cotton, riding well, shooting straight, dancing lightly, squiring the ladies with elegance and carrying one’s liquor like a gentleman were the things that mattered.

   • 1988, Edmund White, The Beautiful Room is Empty, New York: Vintage International, 1994, Chapter Six,

     A butch entered squiring a blonde whore tottering along on spike heels under dairy whip hair, her chubby hand rising again and again to tuck a stray wisp back into the creamy dome.

   Synonym: escort

Etymology 2

From Middle English squire, borrowed from Middle French esquierre (“rule, carpenter's square”), or from Old French esquire, another form of esquarre (“square”). Cognate with French équerre. Doublet of square.

Noun

squire (plural squires)

1. (obsolete) A ruler; a carpenter's square; a measure.
   • 1598, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene

     But temperaunce, said he, with golden squire, / Betwixt them both can measure out a meane.

   • 1598, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, V, 2, 474.

     do not you know my lady's foot by the squire.

   • as for a workman not to know his axe, saw, squire, or any other toole, […].

   • 1628, William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, IV, 4, 348.

     twelve foot and a half by the squire.

Anagrams

• Squier, quires, risque, risqué, squier