A bachelor is a man who is not and never has been married.[1]
Etymology
A bachelor is first attested as the 12th-century bacheler: a
knight bachelor, a
knight too young or poor to gather vassals under
his own banner.[2] The
Old Frenchbacheler presumably derives from
Provençalbacalar and
Italianbaccalare,[2] but the ultimate source of the word is uncertain.[3][2] The
proposedMedieval Latin *baccalaris ("vassal", "field hand") is only attested late enough that it may have derived from the vernacular languages,[2] rather than from the southern French and northern Spanish Latin[3]baccalaria.[4] Alternatively, it has been derived from Latin baculum ("a stick"), in reference to the wooden sticks used by knights in training.[5][6]
History
From the 14th century, the term "bachelor" was also used for a junior member of a
guild (otherwise known as "yeomen") or
university and then for low-level ecclesiastics, as young
monks and recently appointed
canons.[7] As an inferior grade of scholarship, it came to refer to one holding a "
bachelor's degree". This sense of baccalarius or baccalaureus is first attested 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. There were two classes of baccalarii: the baccalarii cursores, theological candidates passed for admission to the divinity course, and the baccalarii dispositi, who had completed the course and were entitled to proceed to the higher degrees.[8]
In the
Victorian era, the term "
eligible bachelor" was used in the context of
upper classmatchmaking, denoting a young man who was not only unmarried and eligible for marriage, but also considered "eligible" in financial and social terms for the prospective bride under discussion. Also in the Victorian era, the term "
confirmed bachelor" denoted a man who desired to remain single.
By the later 19th century, the term "bachelor" had acquired the general sense of "unmarried man". The expression
bachelor party is recorded 1882. In 1895, a feminine equivalent "bachelor-girl" was coined, replaced in US English by "
bachelorette" by the mid-1930s. This terminology is now generally seen as antiquated, and has been largely replaced by the
gender-neutral term "
single" (first recorded 1964). In England and Wales, the term "bachelor" remained the official term used for the purpose of marriage registration until 2005, when it was abolished in favor of "single."[9]
Bachelors have been subject to
penal laws in many countries, most notably in
AncientSparta and
Rome.[3] At Sparta, men unmarried after a certain age were subject to various penalties (
Greek: ἀτιμία, atimía): they were forbidden to watch women's gymnastics; during the winter, they were made to march naked through the
agora singing a song about their dishonor;[3] and they were not provided with the traditional respect due to the elderly.[10] Some
Athenian laws were similar.[11]
Over time, some punishments developed into no more than a teasing game. In some parts of Germany, for instance, men who were still unmarried by their 30th birthday were made to sweep the stairs of the
town hall until kissed by a "virgin".[12] In a 1912
Pittsburgh Press article, there was a suggestion that local bachelors should wear a special pin that identified them as such, or a black necktie to symbolize that "....they [bachelors] should be in perpetual mourning because they are so foolish as to stay unmarried and deprive themselves of the comforts of a wife and home."[13]
The idea of a
tax on bachelors has existed throughout the centuries. Bachelors in Rome fell under the
Lex Julia of 18 BC and the
Lex Papia Poppaea of AD 9: these lay heavy fines on unmarried or childless people while providing certain privileges to those with several children.[3] In 1695, a law known as the
Marriage Duty Act was imposed on single males over 25 years old by the English Crown to help generate income for the
Nine Years' War.[14] In
Britain, taxes occasionally fell heavier on bachelors than other persons: examples include 6 & 7 Will. III, the 1785 Tax on Servants, and the 1798 Income Tax.[3]
It has been noted by some people such as
Francis Bacon that many preeminent men throughout history have been bachelors:[15]
He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men, which, both in affection and means, have married and endowed the public.
I do not think you can name many great inventions that have been made by married men.
A study that was conducted by professor Charles Waehler at the
University of Akron in Ohio on non-married
heterosexual males deduced that once non-married men hit middle age, they will be less likely to marry and remain unattached later into their lives.[17] The study concluded that there is only a 1-in-6 chance that men older than 40 will leave the single life, and that after the age 45, the odds fall to 1-in-20.[17]Kenyan psychologist Florence Wamaitha noted that single men have the freedom to interact with people and hence have a deeper connection to the world and that most single males are financially stable as they do not have many family responsibilities.[18]
In certain
Gulf Arab countries, "bachelor" can refer to men who are single as well as immigrant men married to a spouse residing in their country of origin (due to the high added cost of sponsoring a spouse onsite),[19] and a colloquial term "executive bachelor" is also used in rental and sharing accommodation advertisements to indicate availability to
white-collar bachelors in particular.[20][better source needed]
Men who never married
Listed chronologically by date of birth.
Ancient Period
Medieval Period, Renaissance, and Early Enlightenment
^Bachelors are, in
Pitt & al.'s phrasing, "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating". (Pitt, Richard; Borland, Elizabeth (2008),
"Bachelorhood and Men's Attitudes about Gender Roles", The Journal of Men's Studies, vol. 16, pp. 140–158).
^
abcdOxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "
bachelor, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1885.
^For further
etymological discussion, with sources, see
Schmidt,(Schmidt, Uwe Friedrich, Praeromanica der Italoromania auf der Grundlage des LEI (A und B), Europäische Hochschulschriften; Vol. 49, No. 9 (in German)) reprinted by
Lang.
^
abBecker, Thomas W. Eight Against the World: Warriors of the Scientific Revolution (Bloomington: AuthorHouse, 2007), 17.
^McElroy, Tucker, Ph.D. A to Z of Mathematicians (New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2005), 25.
^Frischer, Bernard. The Sculpted Word: Epicureanism and Philosophical Recruitment in Ancient Greece (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), 63.
^Hawks, Francis L. D.D., LL. D. (Editor). Appletons' Cyclopædia of Biography (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1856), 569.
^Phillipson, Nicholas. David Hume: The Philosopher as Historian (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), 12.
^Hazel, John. Who's Who in the Roman World (London: Routledge, 2001), 140.
^Parry, Emma Louise. The Two Great Art Epochs (Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1914), 210.
^Anderson, John D.A History of Aerodynamics and Its Impact on Flying Machines (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 44.
^Rogers, Arthur Kenyon. The Life and Teachings of Jesus (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1894), 270.
^Timmons, Todd. Makers of Western Science (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2012), 52.
^Rae, John.Life of Adam Smith (London: Macmillan & Co., 1895), 213.
^Lucian, Demoxan, c. 55, torn, ii., Hemsterh (Editor), p. 393, as quoted in A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus With the Encheiridion (2009), p. 6.
^Paulsen, Friedrich.Immanuel Kant, His Life and Doctrine (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1902), 26.
^Smith, William, D.C.L., LL.D. (Editor). A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines (London: John Murray, 1887), 485.
^Allan-Olney, Mary. The Private Life of Galileo (Boston: Nichols and Noyes, 1870), 75.
^Hubbard, Elbert.Little Journeys to the Homes of Famous Women (New York: William H. Wise & Co., 1916), 165.
^Green, Bradley G. (Editor). Shapers of Christian Orthodoxy (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2010), 236.
^Malcolm, Noel (Editor). The Correspondence of Thomas Hobbes, Vol. I (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 191.
^Rudall, H.A. Beethoven (London: Sampson, Low, Marston and Company, 1903), 28.
^Walker, Gabrielle. An Ocean of Air – Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the Atmosphere (Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc., 2007) 24.
^Sterling, Keir B. Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997), 465.
^Cook, Terrence E. The Great Alternatives of Social Thought: Aristocrat, Saint, Capitalist, Socialist (Savage, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1991), 97.
^Bebel, August.Woman in the Past, Present and Future (San Francisco: International Publishing Co., 1897), 58.
^Owen, William (Editor). A New and General Biographical Dictionary, Volume II (London: W. Strahan, 1784), 371.
^Bos, Henk J. M. Lectures in the History of Mathematics (American Mathematical Society, 1993), 63.
^von Hellborn, Dr. Heinrich Kreissle. Franz Schubert: A Musical Biography [abridged], trans. by Edward Wilberforce (London: William H. Allen & Co., 1866), 64.
^McElroy, Tucker, Ph.D. A to Z of Mathematicians (New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2005) 24.
^Szulc, Tad. Chopin in Paris: The Life and Times of the Romantic Composer (Da Capo Press, 2000), 61.
^Bancroft, George. History of the United States of America, Vol. I (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1916), 561.
^Tibbetts, John C. Schumann – A Chorus of Voices (Amadeus Press, 2010), 146.
^Francks, Richard. Modern Philosophy: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (London: Routledge, 2003), 59.
^Buber, Martin. "The Question to the Single One," from Søren Kierkegaard: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers, edited by Daniel W. Conway (London: Routledge, 2002), 45.
^Lasater, A. Brian. The Dream of the West, Part II: The Ancient Heritage and the European Achievement in Map-Making, Navigation and Science, 1487–1727 (Morrisville, NC: Lulu Enterprises, Inc., 2007), 509.
^Thomas, Joseph, M.D. Universal Pronouncing Dictionary of Biography and Mythology, Vol. II (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1908), 1814.
^Hudson, William Henry. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Herbert Spencer (London: Watts & Co., 1904), 23.
^Kidder, David S. The Intellectual Devotional Biographies: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Acquaint Yourself with the World's Greatest Personalities (New York: Rodale, Inc., 2010), 6.
^Mabie, Hamilton Wright.Noble Living and Grand Achievement: Giants of the Republic (Philadelphia: John C. Winston & Co., 1896), 665.
^Sandberg, Karl C. At the Crossroads of Faith and Reason: An Essay on Pierre Bayle (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1966), vii.
^Hubbard, William Lines (Editor), American History and Encyclopedia of Music, Musical Biographies, Vol. 1 (New York: Irving Squire, 1910), 97.
^Joesten, Castellion, and Hogg. The World of Chemistry: Essentials, 4th Ed. (Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole, 2007), 25.
^Archibald, Raymond Clare. Semicentennial Addresses of the American Mathematical Society, Vol. II (New York, NY: American Mathematical Society, 1938), 272.
^Crumbley, Paul. Student's Encyclopedia of Great American Writers, Vol. II, 1830–1900 (New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2010), 305.
^Heinich, Nathalie. The Glory of Van Gogh: An Anthropology of Admiration, trans. by Paul Leduc Brown (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 85.
^Cheney, Margaret. Tesla: Master of Lightning (Metrobooks/Barnes & Noble, 1999), preface p. vi.
^Crouch, Tom D. The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright (W. W. Norton & Company, 2003)
^Garraty, John Arthur; Carnes, Mark Christopher; American Council of Learned Societies, American National Birography, Vol. I (London: Oxford University Press, 1999), 419.
^Burt, Daniel S. The Literary 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Novelists, Playwrights, and Poets of All Time, Revised Edition (New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2009), 116.