1. RANKS AND OFFICES
Adjutant: French adjudant; Latin adjutant-em—adjutare, to assist. An assistant. An office introduced in the English Army in 1660.
Bombardier: from bombard, old name of a cannon (bombo et ardore, with noise and heat); Latin bombus, a humming noise—ardor, heat.
Captain: French capitaine; Late Latin capitan-us—caput, head. A chief.
Captain-General: name of Commander-in-Chief till Marlborough’s time. Probably taken from the Spanish Capitan-General.
Colonel: French colonnel; Italian colonello, a little column; Latin columna. Column-leader.
Cornet: French cornette, a hornshaped flag for Cavalry; Latin cornu, a horn.
Corporal: Old French corporal (16th cent.); Latin corporalis, belonging to the body, corpus; or, by confusion with corporalis, from French caporal; Italian capo di squadra or squad-leader, from Latin caput, head.
General: i.e. general officer, or officer with general command over all troops, and not over those of his own Arm only.
Généralissime: the Supreme Commander of Armies. A term adopted by Richelieu, and used in France to-day.
Lance-Sergeant (or Lance-Corporal): from lanz pesado or dismounted lance, superior to the ordinary infantry with whom he had perforce to march on foot after losing his horse.
Lieutenant: French lieu-tenant; Latin locum tenens. A deputy, of the Captain, the Colonel, or the General.
Major: originally Sergeant-Major (17th cent.).
Major-General: originally Sergeant-Major-General (17th cent.).
Marshal: a farrier. Old French mareschal; Low Latin mariscalcus; Teutonic maraschalk, from mara, a battle-horse, and skalk, a servant.
Officer: French officier; Late Latin officiar-ius—officium. An office-holder.
Private: i.e. a private man, not an officer (used from 16th cent.).
Quarter-Master: a quarter, i.e. one-fourth of a locality, came to mean generally a district, and then a lodging for soldiers assigned to that district.
Rank: French rang; Old German hrang, a ring, and later a row, of men.
Sapper: French sapeur—saper, to dig; Italian zappa, a mattock.
Sergeant: Old French serjent, servjent, or servient; Latin servient-em—servire, to serve.
Sergeants-at-Arms (Servientes ad Arma) were instituted by Richard I. during his Syrian campaign as his personal guard.
Soldier: Old French soldier; Latin soldarius—solidarius—sold-us, pay—solidus, a solid piece.
Staff: what the General leans on—a stick; from Aryan root sta = stand.
Trumpeter: French trompeteur. [See [Trumpet].]
Yeomen of the Guard: Personal Guard of Henry VII. The first regular military organization in England (1485).