Other forms: cavalries
Cavalry were soldiers who fought on horseback. A cavalry charge, the cavalry arrived, a cavalry regiment.
Modern armies keep cavalry regiments with the name and the traditions but with armoured vehicles instead of horses, which is why cavalry still appears in current news. The phrase the cavalry arrived means help came at the last moment, from a thousand westerns. Note the spelling trap: cavalry is soldiers on horses, Calvary is the hill of the crucifixion, and they are transposed constantly in writing. Cavalier, from the same root, means both a horseman and offhandedly dismissive.
1nouncavalrySoldiers who fought on horseback.
“The cavalry were sent round the flank.”
2nounarmouredA modern armoured regiment keeping the old name.
“The regiment is cavalry in name and armour in fact.”
cavalry is a kind of soldier.
Italian cavalleria comes from cavallo, a horse, from Latin caballus, a workhorse — the same root as cavalier, chivalry and the French cheval. Chivalry and cavalry are the same word arriving twice, one as a code of honour and one as a branch of the army.
Middle French
cavalerie
English, today
cavalry
Borrowed from Middle French cavalerie. From Middle French cavalerie, in turn from Italian cavalleria. Recorded in English from the 1540s. a doublet of chivalry.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Military & Defence, Horses & Riding