cavalier

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The Word of the Day for May 28 is:

cavalier   \kav-uh-LEER\   adjective 
     1 : debonair 
    *2 : marked by or given to offhand and often disdainful dismissal of 
important matters

Example sentence:
     "I'm tired of the cavalier way you brush off my concerns," Mom said, "so 
I'm taking away the car keys until you start listening to me."

Did you know?
     According to a dictionary prepared by Thomas Blount in 1656, a cavalier 
was "a knight or gentleman, serving on horseback, a man of arms." That meaning 
is true to the history of the noun, which traces back to the Late Latin 
"caballarius," meaning "horseman." By around 1600, it had also come to denote 
"a roistering swaggering fellow." In the 1640s, English Puritans applied it 
disdainfully to their adversaries, the swashbuckling royalist followers of 
Charles I, who sported longish hair and swords. Although some thought those 
cavaliers "several sorts of Malignant Men, . . . ready to commit all manner of 
Outrage and Violence," others saw them as quite suave -- which may explain why 
"cavalier" can be either complimentary or a bit insulting.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.





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