cavalier servente

[kah-vah-lyer ser-ven-te]

noun

Italian.

plural

cavalieri serventi 

1. a lover; suitor.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cavalier servente¹

Literally, “serving cavalier”

Example Sentences

The Cascine and the Pergola are reproduced with all their gay life and license; the Contessa Zenobia and her cavalier servente, so comical, yet true, are but slight exaggerations of what many of us have witnessed and wondered at.

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But Dobbin in his capacity of cavalier servente suffered more than anybody, for she took an impish delight in luring him beyond his depth and then leaving him to flounder out as best he might.

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Sometimes, when there was really a lover in the question, the cavalier servente must have been a serious impediment; he was always L� plant� ... � contrecarrer un pauvre tiers, in the words of the witty Pr�sident de Brosses, who, though he did not wholly credit the assurances he received as to the invariable innocence of the institution, was yet far from passing on it the sweeping judgment arrived at by most foreigners.

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Take me, take me as thy knight, Thine own cavalier servente; I will bear thy silken robe And each wayward mood of thine.

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He was well established as cavalier servente now in the Lorenzoni household, and it was understood that Mamie would be a princess some day.

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