英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

esquire (n.)[esquire 词源字典]: late 14c., from Middle French esquier "squire," literally "shield-bearer" (for a knight), from Old French escuier "shield-bearer (attendant young man in training to be a knight), groom" (Modern French écuyer), from Medieval Latin scutarius "shield-bearer, guardsman" (in classical Latin, "shield-maker"), from scutum "shield" (see hide (n.1)). For initial e-, see e-. Compare squire (n.). Originally the feudal rank below knight, sense broadened 16c. to a general title of courtesy or respect for the educated and professional class, especially, later, in U.S., regarded as belonging especially to lawyers.
In our own dear title-bearing, democratic land, the title of esquire, officially and by courtesy, has come to include pretty much everybody. Of course everybody in office is an esquire, and all who have been in office enjoy and glory in the title. And what with a standing army of legislators, an elective and ever-changing magistracy, and almost a whole population of militia officers, present and past, all named as esquires in their commissions, the title is nearly universal. [N.Y. "Commercial Advertiser" newspaper, quoted in Bartlett, 1859]
[esquire etymology, esquire origin, 英语词源]
magistrate (n.): late 14c., "civil officer in charge of administering laws," from Old French magistrat, from Latin magistratus "a magistrate, public functionary," originally "magisterial rank or office," from magistrare "serve as a magistrate," from magister "chief, director" (see master). Related: Magistracy.
pentarchy: "A group or league of five provinces, sees, kingdoms, etc., each under its own ruler; the rulers of these collectively. Now chiefly historical", Late 16th cent.; earliest use found in Raphael Holinshed (c1525–?1580), historian. From ancient Greek πενταρχία a rule of five, with reference to the magistracy of the five at Carthage (from πεντα- + -αρχία); perhaps via Middle French, French pentarchie.