Other forms: squires
A squire is a knight's young attendant, or a country landowner. The knight's squire, the local squire, squire of the parish.
The two senses are stages of one history: a squire began as the boy who carried a knight's shield and hoped to be knighted, and the word settled on the landowning gentleman below a knight. The Latin scutum means a shield.
1nounsquireA knight's young attendant.
“The young squire polished his knight's armour and looked after his horse.”
2nouncountryA country landowner.
“The old squire owned most of the land around the village.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
squire is an attendant, or a landowner.
Old French escuier means a shield-bearer, from Latin scutum, a shield. Esquire is the same word.
Latin
scūtārius — shield-bearer
Old French
escuier
Middle English
esquire
English, today
squire
Built from
From Middle English esquire, from Old French escuier, from Latin scūtārius (“shield-bearer”), from scūtum (“shield”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA