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A bachelor is a man who is not married (see single person). The term is restricted to men who are not in a pair bond that will produce children and are not actively seeking a long-term partner.^[1]

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" because these researchers discovered that these profiled men were more liberal in their attitudes towards women's roles in society; this was not the case for those men who were "unmarried" outside this profile.^[2]

The terms "confirmed bachelor" or "lifelong bachelor" can refer to men who show little interest in marriage or other types of committed relationships, although now almost archaic due to more liberal social attitudes. These terms, as well as others such as "not the marrying kind" or "never met the right woman" are today not to be confused with being gay. That said, the term "confirmed bachelor" was a code or euphemistic term used to describe homosexual men, especially entertainers and athletes, in the era before the sexual revolution of the 1960s when homosexuality was not socially accepted and the stars needed a palatable explanation for why they were unmarried.

Etymology and historical meanings[link]

The word is from Anglo-Norman bacheler (later suffixal change to bachelier; cf. escolier "student", from earlier escoler), "knight bachelor", a young squire in training, ultimately from Medieval Latin baccalāris (cf. Provençal bacalar, Tuscan bacalaro "squire"), a very low ranking vassal or farm hand. 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, for example, 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.^{[citation needed]}

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".^{[citation needed]}

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) ^[3], and a colloquial term "executive bachelor" is also used in rental and sharing accommodation advertisements to indicate availability to white-collar bachelors in particular ^[4].

Historical Examples of Bachelors (Men Who Never Married)[link]

Heraclitus
Plato ^[5]
Horace ^[6]
Jesus ^[7]
Aquinas
da Vinci ^[8]
Copernicus ^[9]
Raphael ^[10]
Brahe ^[11]
Galileo ^[12]
Descartes ^[13]
Locke ^[14]
Spinoza ^[15]
Newton ^[16]
Leibniz ^[17]
Vivaldi
Handel ^[18]
Pope ^[19]
Voltaire ^[20]
Hume ^[21]
Smith ^[22]
Kant ^[23]
Gibbon ^[24]
Beethoven ^[25]
Schopenhauer ^[26]
Buchanan ^[27]
Schubert ^[28]
Chopin ^[29]
Kierkegaard ^[30]
Thoreau ^[31]
Brahms ^[32]
James ^[33]
Van Gogh ^[34]
Nietzsche ^[35]
Kafka ^[36]
Tesla ^[37]
Sartre ^[38]

See also[link]

• Bachelor's degree
• Bachelor pad
• Bachelor party
• Bachelorette
• Eligible bachelor
• Spinster
• Lad culture

Footnotes[link]

Jonathan Sean Lowe (born March 29, 1971 in Dallas, Texas) is a retired Major League Baseball pitcher. He played during seven seasons at the major league level for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, Colorado Rockies, and Kansas City Royals. He was drafted by the Cardinals in the 1st round (15th pick) of the 1992 amateur draft. Lowe played his first professional season with their Class A (Short Season) Hamilton Redbirds in 1992, and his last with Kansas City and their Triple-A Omaha Royals in 2003. Lowe's unique spot in baseball immortality occurred 16 June 2001, against the St. Louis Cardinals, when Albert Pujols recorded his first, and what may yet be his only, sacrifice bunt against Lowe.

External links[link]

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube

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