The sun., 1918-08-11
Origin of Military Titles
Reaches Far Into Past

THE titles OF rank and command in
i most armies and navies, including
ours, either have been slowly evolved by
service usage or elae when the rank was
created the word sprang full armed from
the brow of some monarch or statesman
who was better in his own line than
in etymology Not much system runs
through these titles Their designations
Of grades have small connection with the
original meanings of their parent words.
Marechal. which is marshal, is the high
est rank in the French army. Field mar
shall in the English and German armies
corresponds, but with regional limitations;
there may be more than one at the same
time The Spanish or Portuguese is mari
sal, the Italian marisealo, though the army
of neither country has the rank.
All these words are derived from the
Anglo Saxon marah, horse, and sealh,
a servant, which is Anglo Saxon or Gothic.
That is, marshal was once horse boy.
General, the noun, and the adjective
general, the antonym of particular, 60
back to the Latin generals, meaning be-
longing to a race or kind, and itself trae-
ing to- genus genera, from gigners, to
beget. Generals in Cgsar's and Pom
pey's day had nothing to do with the
army; the Roman general was an impe-
rator. The title general primarily means
an officer holding general command.
Colonel l. a Column Leader.
The Spanish for colonel is eoronel, the
Italian eolonello. The Spaniards originated
the word 400 years ago and seem to have
made it by combining the sense of the
Latin eolumna, a column, with that of
corona, a crown. We follow the French
spelling, but in pronouneing we retain
the Spanish R, hence "kernal," as we say
it. Literally it means the leader of
column or of the company at the head Of
the regiment in column.
Major, like mayor, is from the Latin
word major, greater, the comparative of
magnus, great The French for the same
adjective is majeur, the Italian maggiore;
mayor, by the way, is the Spanish form.
A major is greater than a captain, but
less than Northumberland. He is the
lowest field officer
Captain through the medieval Latin
word capitanus, meaning pretty much the
same thing, goes back to the Latin eaput,
capitis, which means head. In other
words, the head man. Hetman has sim
liar derivation. In our army a captain
commands company. A captain in Dub
navy ranks next above a commar'o-.
Lieutenant is spelled alike IN English
and French. The Englishman pronounces
it "leftenant' The italian word is loco
tenentc, and there you have a glimpse of
the derivation from the Latin locum
tencns, holding or acting in the place,
presumably of some one else. The short
of this long is that a lieutenant originally
was the deputy or representative of his
superior officer.
Combinations of the word, such as lien
enant-colonel, mean an officer subordi-
nate and assistant to the rank to which
lieutenant is prefxed. In European
armies, by the way, the lieutenant colonel
is often the real commander of regiment,
its colonel being rome royalty whose
duties end with having himself photo
graphed in the uniform. The Kaiser's
daughter. Princess Victoria Luise, is
colonel of a crack regiment of cavalry.
In our navy the rank now called leu