Web Encyclopedia News Blogs Forums

Bachelor

A bachelor is a man above the age of majority who has never been married (see single). A man who was formerly married is not a bachelor but rather is a divorcé or a widower (except in cases where the marriage was legally annulled, in which case there was legally no marriage—especially if it was never consummated).

The term is sometimes restricted to men who do not have and are not actively seeking a spouse or other personal partner.Cole, David. "Note on Analyticity and the Definability of 'Bachelor'." Philosophy Department of the University of Minnesota Duluth. 1 February 1999. Accessed 14 February 2008. For example, men who are in a committed relationship with a personal partner (female or male) to whom they are not married are no longer generally considered "bachelors," but neither are they considered married. Thus, a broad grey, unnamed status has emerged between the concepts of "bachelor" and "married man."

Research done by sociologists Richard Pitt and Elizabeth Borland sharpens the definition of bachelor to mean "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating" for just this reason. They discovered that these bachelors were more liberal in their attitudes towards women's roles in society; this was not the case for those men who were only "unmarried". Pitt, Richard and Elizabeth Borland. 2008. "Bachelorhood and Men's Attitudes about Gender Roles" The Journal of Men's Studies 16:140-158

During the Victorian Era, the term "confirmed bachelor" often was used as a euphemism for a gay man and is currently still in use in the United States and Great Britain.biology - List of sexual slursPeter Wilby on the Lord Browne saga | Media | The Guardian In spite of the wider acceptance of gay people and same-sex relationships in recent years there are only little changes in this historic usage. Meanwhile, the term "confirmed bachelor" can also refer to heterosexual men who show no interest in marriage or classes of committed relationships.

"Most eligible bachelor" is a generic term for a published listing of bachelors considered to be desirable marriage candidates. Usually "most eligible bachelor" lists are published on an annual basis and present listed men in a ranked order.

Etymology and historical meanings

The word is from Old French bacheler "knight bachelor", a young squire in training, ultimately from Latin baccalarius, a vassal farmer. The Old French term crossed into English around 1300, referring to one belonging to the lowest stage of knighthood. Knights bachelor were either poor vassals who could not afford to take the field under their own banner, or knights too young to support the responsibility and dignity of knights banneret. From the 14th century, the term was also used for a junior member of a guild, otherwise known as "yeomen", or university; hence, an ecclesiastic of an inferior grade, e.g. a young monk or even recently appointed canon (Severtius, de episcopis Lugdunen-sibus, p. 377, in du Cange).

"Bachelor" can also refer to those holding a "bachelor's degree" from a university (or a four-year college, in the American system of higher education). In this sense the word baccalarius or baccalaureus first appears at the University of Paris in the 13th century, in the system of degrees established under the auspices of Pope Gregory IX, as applied to scholars still in statu pupillari. Thus there were two classes of baccalarii: the baccalarii cursores, theological candidates passed for admission to the divinity course; and the baccalarii dispositi, who, having completed this course, were entitled to proceed to the higher degrees. The term baccalaureus is a pun combining the prosaic baccalarius with bacca lauri "laurel berry" — according to the American Heritage Dictionary, "bacca" is the Old Irish word for "farmer" + laureus, "laurel berry," the idea being that a "baccalaureate" had farmed (cultivated) his mind.

The sense of "unmarried man" dates to 1385. The feminine bachelorette is from 1935, replacing earlier bachelor-girl. In 19th century American slang to bach was used as a verb meaning "to live as an unmarried man".

Penal laws and customs

Bachelors, in the sense of unmarried men, have in many countries been subjected to ridicule and draconian penal laws. In Sparta, citizens who remained unmarried after a certain age suffered various penalties. They were not allowed to witness the gymnastic exercises of the maidens; and during winter they were compelled to march naked round the marketplace, singing a song composed against themselves and expressing the justice of their punishment. The usual respect of the young to the old was not paid to bachelors.

In Athens there was no definite legislation on this matter; but certain minor laws are evidently dictated by a spirit akin to the Spartan doctrine. In Rome, though there appear traces of some earlier legislation in the matter, the first clearly known law is that called the Lex Julia, passed about 18 BC. It does not appear to have ever come into full operation; and in AD 9 it was incorporated with the Lex Papia et Poppaea, the two laws being frequently cited as one, Lex Julia et Papia Poppaea. This law, while restricting marriages between the several classes of the people, laid heavy penalties on unmarried persons, gave certain privileges to those citizens who had several children, and finally imposed lighter penalties on married persons who were childless.

Isolated instances of such penalties occur during the Middle Ages, e.g. by a charter of liberties granted by Matilda I, countess of Nevers, to Auxerre in 1223, an annual tax of five solidi is imposed on any man qui non habet uxorem et est bache-larius ("who does not have a wife and is a bachelor"). In Great Britain there has been no direct legislation bearing on bachelors; but, occasionally, taxes have been made to bear more heavily on them than on others. Instances of this are an Act passed in 1695; the tax on servants, 1785; and the income tax, 1798.

In some cultures, the "punishment" of bachelors is no more than a teasing game. In small towns in Germany, for example, men who were still unmarried on their 30th birthday were made to sweep the stairs of the town hall until kissed by a virgin. This "punishment" () is still practised today in parts of Northern Germany. Similarly, in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia, a man is called a and may receive a giant pepper grinder on his 30th birthday if unmarried.

Notable bachelors

A P J Abdul Kalam, former President of India

Adam Clayton, bass player of U2 (has been engaged)

Adam Smith, Scottish economist

Al Pacino, American actor (has three children)

André Roussimoff, French wrestler André the Giant (had a daughter)

António de Oliveira Salazar, Portuguese dictator

Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer

Apollo Quiboloy, Filipino television evangelst

Archibald Butt, military aide to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft; died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic

Arthur Balfour, British Prime Minister

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Prime Minister of India

Axl Rose, lead singer of Guns N' Roses

Baruch de Spinoza, Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish origin

Benjamin Banneker, American scientist

Benny Hill, British comedian

Cesar Romero, Cuban actor

Christopher Hewett, English actor

Christopher Marlowe, Elizabethan playwright

Cliff Richard, British singer

Colin Jackson, British athlete

Dale Winton, British television presenter

David Blaine, American magician and endurance performer

David Hume, Scottish philosopher

David Walliams, British comedian

Dennis Nilsen, British serial killer

Ed Koch, Mayor of New York

Edward Heath, British Prime Minister

Eliseo Soriano, Filipino evangelist

Ernst Röhm, Nazi leader

Eugène Delacroix, French painter

Évariste Galois, French mathematician

Evo Morales, current President of Bolivia

Frankie Howerd, British comedian

Franz Schubert, Austrian composer

Freddie Mercury, British singer

Friedrich Nietzsche, German author

George Eastman, founded Eastman Kodak Company and invented roll film, helping to popularize photography

George Frideric Handel, Anglo-German composer

George Gershwin, American composer

George Tobias, American actor

George Washington Carver, American scientist

Gianni Russo, American actor

Gore Vidal, American writer

Graham Norton, Irish comedian

Gucci Mane, American rapper

Heath Ledger, actor (had a daughter)

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter

Henry Brandon, American actor

Herbert Spencer, English philosopher and political theorist

Hugh Grant, British actor

Ian Brady, British serial killer

Ian McKellen, British actor

Immanuel Kant, German philosopher

Isaac Newton, English scientist

Israel Shahak, Polish-born Israeli Professor of Chemistry at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, former president of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights

J. Edgar Hoover, first Director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation

James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States, the only one who was never married (was engaged, but his financée died before their would-be wedding)

Jason Donovan, Australian singer

Jason Statham, British actor

Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher

Jim Nabors, American actor and singer

Jimi Hendrix, American guitarist, singer and songwriter

Jimmy Carr, British comedian

Jimmy Savile, English DJ and TV and radio personality

Johann Friedrich Struensee, de facto regent of Denmark

Johannes Brahms, German composer

Jon Snow, British journalist and newsreader

Justin Theroux, American actor

Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer

Karlis Ulmanis, first Prime Minister of Latvia, later authoritarian President of Latvia 1934-1940

Keanu Reeves, American actor

Langston Hughes, American poet

Leonardo da Vinci, Italian inventor, artist, and scientist

Liberace, American pianist

Lindsey Graham, U.S. Senator from South Carolina

Louis Theroux, Anglo-American film-maker

Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer

Luke Wilson, American actor

Luther Vandross, American singer/songwriter

Matt Dillon, American actor

Matthew McConaughey, American actor

Maurice Ravel, Basque French composer

Meriwether Lewis, American explorer

Michael Hutchence, Australian singer

Michael Winner, British film director

Nicola Tesla, scientist and inventor

Nipsey Russell, American comedian

Noel Coward, British playwright and actor

Norodom Sihamoni, current King of Cambodia

Owen Wilson, American actor

Paul Erdos, Hungarian mathematician; died celibate

Pierre Boulle, French author

Plato, ancient Greek philosopher

Ralph Nader, American activist

Richard Bedford Bennett, 11th Prime Minister of Canada

Richard Mentor Johnson, U.S. Vice President

Richard Reid, British Islamist terrorist

Richard Roeper, columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and co-host of Ebert & Roeper

Robbie Williams, British singer

Robert Schuman, Prime Minister of France, regarded as a founder of the European Union

Samuel J. Tilden, U.S. presidential candidate after the Civil War

Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician who made substantial contributions in the areas of mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series and continued fractions

Theo van Gogh, Dutch film-maker

Theodore F. Green, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island

Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter

Voltaire, French author

Walt Whitman, American writer

William Donald Schaefer, 58th Governor of Maryland

William Lyon Mackenzie King, 10th Prime Minister of Canada

Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player, athlete

Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz, President of Poland during World War II

Orville and Wilbur Wright, American aviation pioneers

Zacarias Moussaoui, French Islamist terrorist

Bachelor

Etymology and historical meanings

Penal laws and customs

Notable bachelors

See also

Further reading