# marshal
## English
### Alternative forms

* marshall (US)
* mareschal (obsolete)

### Etymology

From Middle English marschal, from Anglo-Norman mareschal (“farrier; military commander”), from Medieval Latin mariscalcus (“groom, army commander, court dignitary”), either from Frankish *marhaskalk, or Old High German marah-scalc (“horse-servant”), from Proto-West Germanic *marh + *skalk (whence Old Saxon maraskalk, marahscalc). Compare English mare + shalk.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈmɑːʃəl/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈmɑɹʃəl/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)ʃəl
* Homophones: Marshall, martial

### Noun

marshal (plural marshals)
* (historical) A high-ranking officer in the household of a medieval prince or lord, who was originally in charge of the cavalry and later the military forces in general.
* A military officer of the highest rank in several countries, including France and the former Soviet Union; equivalent to a general of the army in the United States. See also field marshal.
** 1936, H. Hessell Tiltman, The Far East Comes Nearer‎, Jarrolds, page 249:Where stands Marshal Chiang Kai-shek in this conflict of opinion concerning the tactics which China should adopt towards the aggressor? Chiang Kai-shek, according to officials who know his mind with whom I have talked, is all for resistance- as soon as he thinks he can win!
* A person in charge of the ceremonial arrangement and management of a gathering.
* (US) A federal lawman.
* (motor racing) An official responsible for signalling track conditions to drivers (through use of flags), extinguishing fires, removing damaged cars from the track, and sometimes providing emergency first aid.

#### Derived terms

* air chief marshal
* air marshal
* air vice-marshal
* court-marshal
* earl marshal
* fire marshal
* knight marshal
* marshalcy
* marshal of the RAF
* marshalship
* marshal together
* provost marshal
* sky marshal
* velt-marshal

#### Descendants

* → Malay: marsyal

#### Translations
### Verb

marshal (third-person singular simple present marshals, present participle marshalling or marshaling, simple past and past participle marshalled or marshaled)
* To arrange (troops, etc.) in line for inspection or a parade.
** 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎:Nothing could be more business-like than the construction of the stout dams, and nothing more gently rural than the limpid lakes, with the grand old forest trees marshalled round their margins like a veteran army that had marched down to drink, only to be stricken motionless at the water’s edge.
* (by extension) To arrange (facts, etc.) in some methodical order.
** 1963 December, “The fish traffic of Aberdeen”, in Modern Railways, page 389:This train is formed only of "Blue Spot" wagons for London; vans for Mac Fisheries Finsbury Park depot are marshalled at the rear to be detached at Finsbury Park.
* To ceremoniously guide, conduct or usher.
** c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:Our conquering ſwords ſhal marſhal vs the way UUe vſe to martch vpon the ſlaughtered foe: Trampling their bowels with our horſes hoofes: […]
* To gather data for transmission.
* (computing, transitive) To serialize an object into a marshalled state represented by a sequence of bytes that can later be converted back into an object with equivalent properties.

#### Synonyms

* (serialize computing data): serialize, encode

#### Antonyms

* (antonym(s) of “serialize computing data”):: unmarshal, decode, deserialize, unserialize

#### Derived terms

* remarshal

#### Translations
### See also

* marshal on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### References

* ↑ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “marshal”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
* ↑ “marshal”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

### Further reading

* “marshal”, in Collins English Dictionary.
* “marshal”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
* “marshal”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
* “marshal”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.