Cavalry: Soldiers on Horseback, and the Help That Arrives Late
Cavalry are soldiers who fight mounted. Modern armies keep the name for armoured and air units, and the word survives in the phrase about the cavalry arriving.
Cavalry were soldiers mounted on horses. Horses left the battlefield in the twentieth century but the name did not: armoured and helicopter units still carry cavalry titles, because the role — speed, reconnaissance, shock — outlived the animal.
- Mounted soldiers. *The cavalry charged the flank.*
- Modern armoured or air units. *An air cavalry regiment.*
- Rescue arriving in time (figurative). *Here comes the cavalry.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | cavalry | Light cavalry. |
| Person | cavalryman | A veteran cavalryman. |
| Adjective | cavalier | A cavalier attitude. |
| Related | infantry | Infantry on foot. |
| Confusable | Calvary | The hill called Calvary. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The cavalry were held in reserve.British writers often use a plural verb; Americans prefer singular.
- The Charge of the Light Brigade is the most famous cavalry disaster in English.Balaclava, 1854.
- Do not wait for the cavalry to arrive.Figurative — nobody is coming to rescue you.
Cavalry and Calvary — not the same word
- Cavalry — mounted soldiers, from Latin *caballus*, horse
- Calvary — the hill outside Jerusalem, from Latin *calvaria*, skull
- The two are swapped constantly in speech and writing
- A memory hook: cavalry has the a-v of *have horses*, Calvary has the l of *hill*
From Italian *cavalleria*, horse soldiers, from *cavallo*, horse. The same root gives cavalier, chevalier and chivalry — all of them originally about being able to afford a horse, which is how the idea of nobility got attached.
Is cavalry singular or plural?
It is a collective noun. British English often uses a plural verb, American English a singular one. Both are acceptable.
Why does cavalier mean careless?
From the Royalist Cavaliers of the English Civil War, whose opponents portrayed them as dashing but irresponsible.