Issues about the Spanish Language

The Spanish word caballero derives from Late Latin caballarius, (horse groom) which in turn comes from Latin caballus (horse), according to The Free Dictionary. Whenever words like this are encountered in my Spanish classes, students find it very curious and amusing to know what the words actually mean.

Caballero in its more widely used modern meaning, gentleman, has nothing to do with caballo - Spanish for horse - judging by its original meanings. How the word acquired the meaning of gentleman, may be related to the fact that owning a horse was a status symbol in medieval times. Other than that, the word doesn’t have any relation to the level of gentleman ness that a man might possess.

In any case, if anything, a caballero may be more suitable labeled ‘cochero’,’ autero’ or ‘carrero’ (derived respectively from the Spanish words coche, auto and carro, all meaning car in English) if we wanted to update the term, as these days most men own cars more often than horses.

Maybe the term caballero should be more equated to ‘hombre gentil’ (gentleman), which is the most appropriate meaning of caballero in ordinary Spanish usage.