Hi this is Tutor Nick p and this is Word Origin 264.
The word origin today is chivalry. Okay. If somebody wants a screenshot, do it right now.
Let's get right to it. When one says chivalry, it refers to polite and kind behavior which men
are expected to do in order to show women respect, or to show respect for women.
The second use of course is the older use, but the original use.
In former times , chivalry was the set of rules that knights were expected to follow, especially
those of protecting and being polite and respectful towards women.
All right. Let's continue. The origin of chivalry dates back to the 10th century in
France. At that time, the Christian church was trying to regulate runaway violence
in Frankish society, even by knights themselves. So even some knights themselves did not have
proper behavior at that time. Chivalry was established as a religious moral and social code.
Knights could gain a favorable reputation if they follow them and progress their careers. So there
was an incentive for them to try to be this way. All right. Let's continue. The word itself derives
from the French word "cheval" for horse and "chevalier.. I guess for a knight. Chivalry was
also a way of distinguishing upper class, upper classes who were expected to follow them from
the lower classes. So it made you seem more higher class if you did this. All right And we got four
examples to show just how it's used. Here's the first one. In many movies, if a knight in shining
armor came to save a damsel you know a young woman probably, especially a single young woman a maiden
in distress. You know, maybe some other guy was attacking her or trying to harm her in some way.
Damsel in distress was following a code of chivalry. So you've seen this in the old movies.
Some some creepy guy was trying to either kidnap or do something to some woman and the
knight in shining armor comes over to defend and protect the the young maiden or the young woman.
This was following chivalry of course. Number two. In our modern times,
if a gentleman pulled out a seat for a lady to sit holding a door open for her to walk through
or any acts of protection, you know as a coat of chivalry. So that was considered a coat of
chivalry in, in our more modern times. Well let's look at the third one first.
Some say chivalry is dead. Men don't have the same polite and respectful behavior toward,
I guess toward women that they used to have over 50 years ago. So basically what kind of happened.
I can remember this when I was ... when I was young. When I was a kid, I still seen it a lot. I
still had seen some polite men. They used to pull out the chair for the lady to sit you know, it was
kind of polite behavior or if a woman was coming they especially held the door open for women
or if they seen any woman in trouble they would you know quickly kind of volunteer to help them,
but it did it was kind of damaged. It was kind of harmed around the time of the feminist movement.
That's what I and I've often read on this. That's what they say and it was usually due to
not all feminists, but a certain type of feminist that was called a militant feminist. That was
the ones that you know, when they used to have their protests they would... they would protest
they would be burning bras and there was a lot of cases around that time when the men still tried to
to act in this you know, chivalrous way of like pulling a chair out for a woman or holding a door
open for a woman, some of the strong militant feminist women at that time sometimes used to
yell at men for doing this. So if the man held the door open for the woman sometimes he would end up
being yelled at. What's the matter with you ? Do you think I'm too weak? You think I can't hold the
door open for myself ? What do you think you're stronger than me ? You know, it was kind of like
that. And this actually kind of damaged chivalry. So men .. I don't know over time they didn't
do this as much anymore. And you know, nowadays hopefully men will still protect their own woman,
but you have to question whether they might even protect a strange woman. This is what happened.
So that's what actually kind of stimulated this lesson because one student wanted to know
the meaning of "chivalry is dead." We sometimes hear this. Because there was a time 50 60 70 years
ago where men naturally had more of an instinct that they should do these things. They should,
they should try to hold the door open for a woman, pull a chair out for a woman and things like that.
And it just kind of disappeared once this came into effect. It became less and less over time.
Where we don't see this happen anymore. We don't well not commonly anyway. I don't want to see
never, but it's very very rare that you even see a man pull a chair out for a woman anymore.
And they will hold doors open for people, but not necessarily for a woman. They might just do it for
anybody. Sometimes but before they used to run to do it. So there is a difference. Okay. And number
four here. I remember an old cartoon of a knight putting his coat on the ground to cover mud , so
that the woman in a long dress could walk over it. This sort of chivalry exists only in cartoons
or romantic literature. Yeah. Men will not usually take off their nice clean coat and
put it on a muddy ground so the woman could do it. But I always remember that old cartoon.
All right. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope you get a better feel
and a better understanding of it. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.