Etymology Dictionary

BACHELOR,  a young man.  (F.,—L.)   M. E. bacheler, Chaucer, Prol. 80; Rob. of Glouc. pp. 77, 228, 453.—O. F. bacheler.—Low Lat. baccalarius, a farm-servant, originally a cow-herd; from baccalia, a herd of cows; which from bacca, a cow, a Low Lat. form of uacca (Brachet).   [Cf. brébis from Lat. ueruex.]   Lat. uacca is the Skt. vasá, a cow; which Fick interprets as 'the lowing animal;' cf. Skt. vach, to speak.—✔WAK, to speak; Fick, i. 204.   Der. bachelor-ship.   ¶ The usual derivation, from W. bach, little, is possible; see Errata. [※]

ERRATA

The derivation from uacca is that given by Diez; but it is by no means sure.   Scheler remarks:  'Other etymologists, perhaps rightly, start from the Celtic [Welsh] bach, little, young, whence were naturally derived the old terms bachele, bachelette, young girl, maid, baceller, to make love, also to begin an apprenticeship.   Bachele, in its turn, would have produced the form bachelier.   Chevallet says that the Picard baichot, and in Franche-Comté paichan, are still used to mean a little boy.'   I may add that bacele, bacelette, a young girl, and baceller (verb) will be found in Roquefort; who also gives bacele in the sense of a piece of land, as much as twenty oxen could plough in a day, and thence deduces the word bacheler, a young man.   The derivation remains, in fact, unsettled.