colonel
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkɜː.nl̩/
ipa: /ˈkɝ.nl̩/
note: Indic, rhotic
ipa: /ˈkər(ɵ)nəl/
note: Indic, non-rhotic
ipa: /ˈkɜ(rɵ)nəl/
homophone: kernel (most accents)
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)nəl
Forms: form: colonels
form: coronel
form: col.
form: Col.
Etymology: First attested in the 1540s, from Middle French coronnel, from Old Italian colonnello (“the officer of a small company of soldiers (column) that marched at the head of a regiment”), from compagnia colonnella (“little column company”), from Latin columna (“pillar”), originally a collateral form of columen, contraction culmen (“a pillar, top, crown, summit”), o-grade form from a Proto-Indo-European *kelH- (“to rise, be elevated, be prominent”). See hill, holm.
The French spelling was reformed late 16th century. The English spelling was modified in 1580s in learned writing to conform to the Italian form (via translations of Italian military manuals), and differing pronunciations (either with "r" or "l") coexisted until around 1650, where it came to be pronounced with "r" only. Spanish and Portuguese coronel, also from Italian, shows similar evolution by dissimilation and perhaps by influence of corona.
Senses: examples: text: The colonel and his sponsor made a queer contrast: Greystone long and stringy, with a face that seemed as if a cold wind was eternally playing on it. […] But there was not a more lascivious reprobate and gourmand in all London than this same Greystone.
ref: 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
glosses: A commissioned officer in an armed military organization, typically the highest rank before flag officer ranks (generals). It is generally found in armies, air forces or naval infantry (marines).
examples: text: General Charles-Maximilian Fiennes was made colonel of the army.
ref: 2009, Ranulph Fiennes, chapter 21, in Mad Dogs and Englishmen: An Expedition Round My Family, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 284:
glosses: A military leader, distinct from the modern professional military rank.
examples: text: "Colonel" was often used as an honorific, indicating no actual military service: between 1792 and 1916, according to Ron Bryant, a curator at the Kentucky Historical Society, 400 of the 650 colonels commissioned were honorary.
ref: 2002, Kate Chopin and Anna Julia Cooper, “Critiquing Kentucky and the South”, in The Southern Literary Journal, volume 35, number 1, page 127:
glosses: An honorary civilian title bestowed by some southern US states, most commonly Kentucky; notably Colonel Sanders of KFC.
glosses: An informal title used to address an elderly man.
glosses: A form of address for an auctioneer, from the American Civil War practice of commanding officers organizing the public sale of seized goods.
Derived terms: english: chicken colonel, full bird colonel
translation: chicken colonel, full bird colonel
word: bird colonel
word: chickens for Colonel Sanders
english: colonel-commandant
translation: colonel-commandant
word: colonel commandant
word: coloneless
word: colonel general
word: colonel-in-chief
word: colonelship
word: full colonel
word: full eagle colonel
word: half-colonel
word: honorary colonel
word: Kentucky colonel
english: lieutenant-colonel
translation: lieutenant-colonel
word: lieutenant colonel
word: senior colonel
Related terms: colonelcy
colonel-general
royal colonel