paladin

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French paladin (“knight errant; one of the twelve peers of Charlemagne”), also spelled palladin,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in French from 1552, and as an adjective from 1512.^[2] The French word is from Italian paladino, recorded before 1292, probably after Old French palatin,^[2] from Latin palātīnus (“palace official”),^[2][3][5][7] a noun use of the adjective meaning "of the palace".^[3][4] Barnhart allows a learned borrowing from Medieval Latin as well as from classical Latin,^[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes it from Medieval Latin, "courtier",^[8] and the American Heritage Dictionary from Late Latin.^[9] The Latin adjective is formed from palātium (“palace”).^[2][10] The Old French form was palaisin, which gave Middle English palasin about 1400;^[3] Etymonline and Weekley explain that the Italian form prevailed because, although the stories were French, the Renaissance poets who wrote the romances were mostly Italian.^[3][11] The word is thus a doublet of palatine.^[3] The OED compares Spanish paladín (1538, apparently from French) and paladino (1549, from Italian), and German Paladin (17th century, from French).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Any of the twelve peers or most famous warriors of Charlemagne's court, in the later forms of the Charlemagne romances: 1592, in Samuel Daniel's Delia.^[2][4][8]

Semantic evolution

Hoad notes that the Count Palatine was the foremost of the twelve peers.^[5] From the twelve the word was extended to any knight famed for heroism and chivalry.^[2][12] The figurative sense, a knightly defender or champion of a cause, is first recorded in Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1788), possibly after French;^[4][3] French had used paladin for a very brave and chivalrous man since 1606, and Italian paladino had meant a defender or supporter since before 1321.^[2] The adjective, knightly or heroic, follows in 1845.^[2]

Timeline

• 1592 – one of the twelve peers of Charlemagne.^[2][4][8]
• 1788 – a knightly defender or heroic champion, in Gibbon.^[4][3]
• 1845 – adjective, knightly, heroic.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of the twelve legendary peers of Charlemagne's court.^{[10][2][5][12]}
2. A knightly champion or legendary hero.^[10][8][12]
3. A determined and admirable defender of a cause: a paladin of press freedom.^[8][4]

Adjective

1. Knightly; heroic.^[2]

Related words

• palatine
• palace

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press