Friday word: Cavalcade

[med_cat]

cavalcade , n.

cav·al·cade | \ˌka-vəl-ˈkād,ˈka-vəl-ˌ\

1a : a procession of riders or carriages

b : a procession of vehicles or ships

2 : a dramatic sequence or procession : series (a cavalcade of natural disasters)

Synonym: pageant

Examples:

Recent Examples on the Web

Joining the cavalcade of Falcons, Glendale junior pitcher Aurora Funaro and senior third baseman Britney Figueroa of Hoover garnered first-team nods.
— Grant Gordon, latimes.com, "Crescenta Valley softball's Hernandez' phenomenal freshman year leads to league pitcher of year award," 20 June 2018

Families set out camping chairs in the shade of tall trees, sat on the curb or gathered on porches to watch the cavalcade.
— Cortlynn Stark, Hana Muslic, Katie Bernard And Edward Mckinley, kansascity, "From Prairie Village to Parkville, KC area celebrates the Fourth," 4 July 2018

And the example I ran across, recently;
I was amused to discover that this word is the same both in Russian and in English:

"...I, who used to love the hour when the logs in the fireplace
Turn into ash.

Cello, and the cavalcades in the midst of the forest,
And the church-bell in the village...
I, who is so alive and real
On this sweet Earth!..."

(from this poem by Marina Tsvetayeva)

First Known Use of cavalcade

1644, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

History and Etymology for cavalcade

French, ride on horseback, from Old Italian cavalcata, from cavalcare to go on horseback, from Late Latin caballicare, from Latin caballus horse; akin to Greek kaballeion horse, Middle Irish capall workhorse

The History of Cavalcade

When cavalcade was first used in English, it meant "a horseback ride" or "a march or raid made on horseback." Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, used it this way in his 1647 History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England: "He had with some Troops, made a Cavalcade or two into the West." From there came the "procession of riders" meaning and eventual applications to processions in a broader sense. Cavalcade came to English via French from the Old Italian noun cavalcata, which in turn came from an Old Italian verb, cavalcare, meaning "to go on horseback." Ultimately, these words came from the Latin word caballus, meaning "horse." The combining form –cade also appears in other words describing particular kinds of processions, such as motorcade or the less common aquacade.