George Frederick Watts - Sir Galahad - 1943

A white knight is a mythological figure and literary

stock character A stock character, also known as a character archetype, is a type of character in a narrative (e.g. a novel, play, television show, or film) whom audiences recognize across many narratives or as part of a storytelling tradition or convention. Th ...

. They are portrayed alongside a

black knight The black knight is a literary stock character who masks his identity and that of his liege by not displaying heraldry. Black knights are usually portrayed as villainous figures who use this anonymity for misdeeds. They are often contrasted with ...

as diametric opposites. A white knight usually represents a

hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...

warrior A warrior is a guardian specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal society, tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracy, social class, class, or caste. History ...

fighting against evil, with the role in

medieval literature Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (that is, the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500 to the beginning of t ...

being represented by a

knight-errant A knight-errant (or knight errant) is a figure of medieval chivalric romance literature. The adjective '' errant'' (meaning "wandering, roving") indicates how the knight-errant would wander the land in search of adventures to prove his chivalric ...

Mythology

The idea of a positive and negative color symbol being diametrically opposed is very common in ancient mythology, of which the white and black knights are one example, with others including the

white horse A white horse is born predominantly white and stays white throughout its life. A white horse has mostly pink skin under its hair coat, and may have brown, blue, or hazel eyes. "True white" horses, especially those that carry one of the dominant w ...

and

black horse Black is a hair coat color of horses in which the entire hair coat is black. It is not uncommon to mistake dark chestnuts or bays for black. Black horses have dark brown eyes, black skin, and wholly black hair coats without any areas of per ...

from Indo-Aryan mythology. The white color symbolized innocence, illumination, openheartedness, and gladness.

Modern use

The term "white knight" is used in modern-day parlance to mean any kind of savior, although it is also specifically used in a business context to describe a person or corporation that saves another company from a

hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (law), company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are publicly listed, in contrast t ...

and acquires its assets. In various online communities and interactions, "white knight" is also used in slang to refer to men who are trying to curry the favor of women by protecting them, alongside other, similar terms, such as "

simp ''Simp'' () is an internet slang term describing someone who shows excessive sympathy and attention toward another person, typically to someone who does not reciprocate the same feelings, in pursuit of affection or a sexual relationship. This ...

" or " whipped". Those who use the term often align with a

Chad Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North Africa, North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to Chad–Libya border, the north, Sudan to Chad–Sudan border, the east, the Central Afric ...

-like disposition in an often completely imagined game of

sexual competition Sexual selection is a mechanism of evolution in which members of one sex choose mates of the other sex to mate with (intersexual selection), and compete with members of the same sex for access to members of the opposite sex (intrasexual selec ...

. The usage of the term implies that these men, when doing nice things for women, are motivated only by sexual desires.

Historical origins

Although the term 'white knight' has taken on a colloquial meaning in modern English, the White Knight was a historical noble title in the peerage of Ireland, first bestowed upon the Fitzgibbon family by King

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring royal authority after t ...

in 1333 AD. The other two Irish hereditary knighthoods are the

Knight of Glin The Knight of Glin (; dormant 14 September 2011), also known as the Black Knight or Knight of the Valley, was an hereditary knighthood held by the FitzGerald and FitzMaurice families of County Limerick, Ireland, since the early 14th century ...

(also called the Black Knight), and the

Knight of Kerry Knight of Kerry (), also called The Green Knight, is one of three Hiberno-Norman Knight#Ireland, hereditary knighthoods, all of which existed in Ireland since feudal times. The other two were White Knight (Fitzgibbon family), The White Knight ( ...

(also called the Green Knight).

References

{{Stock characters Knights-errant Stock characters Slang terms for people Pejorative terms for men Fictional heroes

Mythology

Modern use

Historical origins

See also

References