Esquire (pronounced es-kwahyuhr or e-skwahyuhr)
(1) An unofficial title of respect (usually with no precise
definition or significance and sometimes self-conferred), placed (often in its abbreviated
form), after a man's surname in formal written address (used with initial
capital letter).
(2) In the US, an informal honorific used by lawyers
(male & female).
(3) In the UK, a term applied to a commoner considered to
have gained the social position of a gentleman (historically a man belonging to
the order of English gentry ranking immediately below a knight).
(4) An alternative form for squire when that was used to
mean “a youth who in the hopes of becoming a knight attends upon a knight” (obsolete).
(5) To raise to the rank of esquire; in medieval use the
attendant and shield bearer of a knight (and subsequently sometimes knighted themselves),
one practical significance of the title being it conferred the right to bear
arms.
(6) In heraldry, a bearing similar in form to a gyron,
but extending across the field so that the point touches the opposite edge of
the escutcheon.
(7) To address as Esquire.
(8) A gentleman who attends or escorts a lady in public;
a male escort (rare and long archaic except when applied humorously or euphemistically
(as a sanitized alternative to “tame cat”, “rent boy” et al).
1425–1475: From the late Middle English esquier, from the Middle French escuyer & escuier (shield bearer; an attendant young man in training to be a
knight), from the Old French esquiere,
esquierre & esquarre (square),
from the Latin scūtārius (“shield
bearer”, “guardsman”, the construct being scūt(um) (shield) + -ārius (-ary). The
suffix -aris was a form of -ālis with dissimilation of -l- to -r-
after roots containing an l (the alternative forms were -ālis, -ēlis, -īlis & -ūlis);
it was used to form adjectives, usually from noun, indicating a relationship or
a "pertaining to"). The form reached modern French as écuyer (shield-bearer, armor-bearer, squire of a knight, esquire,
equerry, rider, horseman). Rather (as
some might reasonably suppose) than esquire being formed as e- + - squire, the
word squire was a product of apheresis (the suppression or complete loss of a
letter or sound (syllable) from the beginning of a word) from the earlier French
& English. Esquire is a noun &
verb and esquired & esquiring are verbs; the noun plural is esquires.
Esquire began as a feudal rank ranking below a knight,
the origin of the word in the role of a squire who attended upon a knight as a
kind of combination of personal assistant, apprentice and servant. For those not from established families, it
was one of the few available paths to knighthood. As the historic role of knights receded in
the sixteenth century, the use broadened to encompass (1) the educated or
professional class (especially those practicing in law) & (2) members of
the gentry and their sons not otherwise entitled to some title. In the US, esquire became attached to lawyers
(both male & female), probably as an identifier to align in some way with
the “Dr” granted to physicians because by convention, those with vocational
doctorates (Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur) don’t use the “Dr”
like those with higher or research doctorates (Ph.D, D.Sc, DCL et al). Reflecting the shared origin with lawyers as “men
of letters” (the lawyers more anxious to acknowledge their past than the
surgeons are to recall they came out of the barber shops) writers and journalists also
long liked to adopt an “esq” though much derision means it’s now less common.
Admiral Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax KCB.
In England, for historic reasons, the history and
current usage is complicated. The title is granted
to the eldest sons of knights, the elder sons of the younger sons of peers and
their eldest sons in succession, officers of the king's courts and of the royal
household, barristers, justices of the peace while in commission & sheriffs and is
available to gentlemen who have held commissions in the military. It thus enjoys a wide vista but even now a
definitive listing of the correct use has never been codified and some view it as pretentious even when technically correct.
Littered in the history of honors are also curiosities like the right of
a Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath to appoint three esquires at
the time of his installation, something which seems of ancient origin but was
formalized in 1815 when the old order of knighthood (KB) was re-organized into
three classes: Knight Grand Cross (GCB), Knight Commander (KCB) & Companion
(CB). One task a KCB’s helpful esquire
might have performed was to assist translators in formal ceremonies. In 1939, when Admiral Sir Reginald Aylmer
Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, KCB, DSO, JP, DL (1880-1967) was introduced
at a ceremony in Moscow, diplomatic protocol required his honors be read out in
full, the Russian translator rendering his KCB as рыцарь умывальник (rytsar' umyval'nik) (Knight of the Wash
Tub). The Russians couldn’t help but laugh
and fortunately, the admiral shared their amusement. In legal documents and in uses deemed formal,
Esquire is usually written in full after the names of those using the
designation. It’s otherwise abbreviated to
Esq or (the now less common) Esqr. Those
conventions should in theory be observed also when adding an address to an
envelope and American lawyers settled on a post-nominal Esq. (almost always
with the needless period (full-stop)) in their e-mail signature blocks.
Lindsay Lohan attending the Esquire and DKNY fashion show, London, June 2014.
Squire was a truncation of esquire, the process known technically linguistics as apheresis (the suppression or complete loss of a letter
or sound (syllable) from the beginning of a word). It too was thus from the Old French escuier, from the Late Latin scutarius (shield bearer) which is Old
English was spelled scutifer. The equivalent in the Classical Latin was
armiger (arms bearer). The early
meanings of squire were essentially the same as those attached to esquire but it
evolved in England by the mid seventeenth century also to describe (with some
variations) “a substantial landholder in a town or village who is a landlord to
most or many inhabitants”. The less
formal term “lord of the manor” was essentially analogous and given the nature
of the class system and economic relations in England, the role of squire often
overlapped with offices such as that or mayor or magistrate and that (linguistic)
tradition continues in contemporary American use, “squire” the title used for justices
of the peace or similar local dignitaries.
Although the attractive slang forms squirearchy
& squiress seem not to have
survived, in UK working class slang, “squire” is used in a respectful and
friendly way between men, a democratic re-purposing of the earlier sense of “country
gentlemen”, dating from 1828. The
meaning “a ruler; a carpenter's square; a measure” was derived from the Middle
French esquierre (rule, carpenter's
square) or the Old French esquire (another form of esquarre (square)) and is long obsolete.
Ford Country Squires: 1951 (with genuine wood, left), 1959 (centre) and 1971 (right).
Long replaced in public favor by even more commodious SUVs,
vans and people-movers, mass-market station wagons were a post-war phenomenon and
in the US popular until the late 1980s. Consistently
the best-selling of the full-sized breed were the big Fords, the
top-of-the-range being the Country Squire which was available between
1950-1991. Its most distinctive feature
was the “woodgrain” Appliqué which adorned the sides and for most of the
Country Squire’s life it was rendered in DI-NOC, (Diurno Nocturna, from the Spanish, literally “daytime-nighttime”
and translated for marketing purposes as “beautiful day & night”), an
embossed vinyl or polyolefin material with a pressure-sensitive adhesive
backing produced since the 1930s and perfected by Minnesota Mining &
Manufacturing (3M). The early cars (1950-1951)
though actually used genuine timber in a nod to earlier coach-building
traditions which were actually an economic imperative, station wagons (until
the suburban developments of the post-war years made them popular) never
produced in sufficient volume to make viable tooling factories for production
in metal. Much cheaper, the plastic
DI-NOC replaced the timber in 1952 (although the perimeter moldings remained
timber until 1953, after which 3M produced an emulation) and other manufacturers
copied the idea which eventually spread beyond station wagons. It was very much a thing which suited US
tastes, Ford’s attempt to tempt UK & Australian buyers short-lived.
One-off 1967 Ford Country Squire with Q-Code 428 V8 and four-speed manual transmission.
Like most big station wagons, almost all the Country
Squires were built for function and although the engines might sometimes be
large (in the 1970s they were available with 429 & 460 cubic inch (7.0
& 7.5 litre) V8s), they were configured to carry or tow heavy loads and were
thus sold almost always with heavy-duty automatic transmissions. In 1967 however, there was a one-off Country
Squire built with the combination of a 428 cubic inch (7.0 litre) V8 in Q-Code
configuration, the “Q” a reference to the four-barrel (quad) carburetor, the
most powerful offered that year in full-sized Fords (except for 12 Ford XLs with the 427 cubic inch V8 built mostly for competition). Such vehicles are usually unicorns, often
discussed and sometimes even created as latter-day “tributes” and are thus rarely "real" but
the 1967 Country Squire is a genuine one-off and as a type may be unique not
only among Fords but also the entire full-size ecosystem of the era. The tale is sometimes still repeated that Plymouth
built a special order Belvedere station wagon at the request of Bill Harrah
(1911–1978) of Harrah's Hotel and Casinos in Nevada (now part of Caesars
Entertainment) with the 426 cubic inch (7.0 litre) HEMI V8 for the rapid transport of cash across the desert but that is a myth and the coda (that Harrah decided instead to build his own) is just as unverified. So the 1967 Country Squire is a curious
period piece and a collectors’ item; despite its dilapidated appearance, in 2020 it sold at auction in the US for almost US$50,000.
Lindsay Lohan in Esquire (Middle East).
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