The word of the day for June 22nd.
Today's word is cavalcade, spelled C-A-V-A-L-C-A-D-E.
Cavalcade is a noun.
It most often refers to a series of related things.
An older meaning, still in use, is a procession of riders or carriages.
Vehicles or ships in a procession can be referred to as a cavalcade too.
Here's the word used in a sentence from the Hasselmere Herald.
The event opened with a cavalcade of musicians, dancers,
and local children, followed by a horse-drawn carriage carrying the watercress king and queen,
who threw bags of freshly harvested watercress into the crowd as they paraded up and down Broad Street.
Cavalcade is a word with deep equestrian roots.
It comes via French and probably Italian, ultimately from the Latin word cabaluz, meaning workhorse or gelding.
Spanish speakers may recognize the influence of cabaluz in the word caballo, meaning horse.
In the 17th century, cavalcade was used specifically to refer to a procession of horseback riders
or carriages, especially as part of a special occasion, whether joyous or funereal.
Over time, that meaning was extended to processions of other modes of travel, including ships, vehicles,
or even parades on foot or float, as invoked by the late singer-songwriter, Eliot Smith,
in his song, Rose Parade, with the lyric, a wink and a wave from the cavalcade.
As a cavalcade of words before and since have done,
cavalcade also took on a figurative sense to refer to a series of related things,