Trending: cavalier

Lookups spiked 2,700% on May 12, 2020

Why are people looking up cavalier?

Cavalier rode to the top of our lookups on May 12th, 2020, after Dr. Anthony Fauci used the word in testimony before the U. S. Senate.

What does cavalier mean?

We have a number of definitions for the adjectival cavalier; the one most likely to have been intended by Dr. Fauci is “marked by or given to offhand and often disdainful dismissal of important matters.” Other senses include “debonair,” “aristocratic,” and “of or relating to the English Cavalier poets of the mid-17th century.”

Where does cavalier come from?

The second person named as informer is Captain John Titus, a man of so vicious a life in his Cavalier way, for whoring, drinking, swearing, and for-swearing, as the world hath scarce his fellow, whose several perjuries upon Judicial Records in England, are said by some of his own kindred not to be a few.
— Anon., A conference with the souldiers, 1653

Trend Watch is a data-driven report on words people are looking up at much higher search rates than normal. While most trends can be traced back to the news or popular culture, our focus is on the lookup data rather than the events themselves.

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