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).
2. VARIETIES OF TROOPS, AND THEIR UNITS AND FORMATIONS
Ambulance: French ambulance, movable hospital; Latin ambulare, to go—ambi, around, and root ba, go, as in Greek bainein.
Army: French armée; Latin armata, past participle of armare, to arm, an armed force.
Army Corps: German Armee-Korps, from French Corps d’Armée—Corps from corpus, body.
Artillery: French artillerie; Italian artilleria, the art of the artillarius, or articularius, from articula, dim. of art-em. Used for guns 16th cent.; for the Arm 18th cent. [See [Chap. XVII.], par. 1.]
Battalion: French; Italian battaglione—battaglia (16th cent.). [See [Battle].]
Battery: French batterie—battre; Late Latin battere, beat; Latin batu-ere.
Brigade: French (16th cent.); Spanish brigade—brigar, to brawl; Italian briga, a quarrel. Hence a body of contesting troops.
Carbineers: Cavalry armed with the carabine. Old French calabrin—calabre, war engine, from Low Latin chatabula; Greek kataball-ein, throw down.
Cavalry: French cavallerie (16th cent.); Italian cavalleria; Late Latin caballarius—caballus, a nag.
Column: Latin columna, a column, from columen—culmen, height—cf. collis, hill.
Command: Old French commander, to order; Latin commendare, to entrust to one’s charge—later, to order; from cum and mandare, to order.
Commissariat: from commissary, a person entrusted; Latin com-mittere, to commit to.
Company: Old French compainie; Late Latin companio—cum pane, with bread, i.e. a messmate.
Cuirassiers: French cuirasse (15th cent.), from cuir; Latin corium, leather.
Dragoons: from carrying a short musket called a dragon. Italian dragone; Latin draco-n-em, a dragon.
Echelon: French échelon—échelle, ladder; Latin scala, step—scando, climb.
Engineer (16th cent.): engynour (16th cent.), earlier engigneor; Old French engineur; Late Latin ingeniator (used in 12th cent.), from ingeniare, from ingenium, whence Engine. [See [Chap. XVII.], par. 1.]
File: number of men in depth (1598); a row, from French file; Latin fila, a thread.
Fusiliers: men armed with the fusil, a firelock (17th cent.). Latin focile, a flint, from focus, a hearth-fire.
Gentlemen-at-Arms: originally a band of Horse, created 1509; subsequently Court Officers.
Grenadiers (late 17th. cent.): men armed with the grenade, invented 1594. Spanish grenada, pome-granate, the fruit full of seeds, from Latin granum, grain.
Guards: soldiers who guard the Sovereign. Guard, French garde, is the Teutonic ward, from war, to defend, connected with ware and wary.
Hussars: Hungarian Huszar, from Husz, twenty. Every twentieth man served in the Light Cavalry on the Turkish frontier.
Infantry: French infanterie; Italian infanteria; Latin infant-em, child (16th cent.), i.e. one who cannot speak—in, not, fari, speak.
Lancers: men armed with the lance. French lance; Latin lancea; Greek lonche.
Line: French ligne; Latin linea, a line or string—linum, flax.
Musketeers: men armed with the Musket, which see.
Ordnance Corps: the R.A. and R.E., which were controlled by the Master-General of the Ordnance, an officer created as early as 1414.
Patrol (late 17th cent.) French patrouille: (1539)—patrouiller, to paddle in mud—Old French patoueil, mud.
Platoon: French peloton, a little ball—pelote, a small bundle; Latin pila, a ball.
Rear: Old French riere, behind; Latin retro, back.
Regiment: French régiment, rule; Latin regiment-um—regere, rule.
Rifles: a body of soldiers armed with rifles. Rifle is short for rifled gun; to rifle means to groove—rive, to tear.
Squad: French escouade; Italian squadra, a square; Latin ex-quadra-re, to square, from quatuor, four.
Squadron: from Italian squadrone, a large square. [See [Squad].]
Train: French train; Old French trahiner, to trail; Low Latin trahin-are, from trah-ere, to draw.
Troop: French troupe, connected with root of drive, German treiben, a drove; Italian truppa, by some connected with Latin turba, a crowd, by a not uncommon process of bringing the “r” before the vowel [cf. brent, burnt].
Vanguard: shortened to van; Old French avant garde—avant is Latin ab-ante, from in front. [See [Guard].]
3. ARMS AND ACCOUTREMENTS
Accoutrements: French accoutrement; accoutre—ad, to, and coutre, from Latin custos, keeper.
Ammunition: store for defence. Latin ad-munition-em—munire, fortify, defend.
Arms: French armes; Latin arma.
Arsenal: arx navalis, naval citadel, or from an Arabic word.
Ball: French balle; Old German bal, from a Teutonic root found in bulge, bole.
Bayonet: French baïonnette, from Bayonne, where first made.
Belt: Anglo-Saxon belt; Irish balt—from which Latin balteus, a belt, probably derived.
Bullet: French boulet, a little ball—boule, a ball; Latin bulla, a knob.
Cannon: i.e. the gun-barrel; Latin canna, a hollow cane.
Carbine: see Carbineers.
Carriage: Old French charrier, or carier, to carry. [See [Cart].]
Cart: dim. of car; French charette; Old French carete; Low Latin careta—carrus, a car.
Cartridge: corruption of cartrage; French cartouche, a charge wrapped up in a cornet of paper; Latin carta, paper.
Cuirass: see [Cuirassiers].
Equip: Old French esquiper, to equip; Norse skipa, to arrange, shape.
Gun: Old English gonne; Welsh gwn; Gaelic gunna. Derivation unknown, perhaps from Old French mangonel; dim. of Latin mangonum, Greek mangonon, a war machine.
Halberd or Halbard: a long-handled weapon; helve or handle; barde, axe.
Haversack (used in 18th cent.): from German haver-sack, sack for oats.
Helmet: Anglo-Saxon helm; Teutonic root hal or kal, to cover.
Howitzer: German hautbitze (so written by Gen. Wolfe about 1750), older hauffnitz, from haufnice, a sling. A Czech word of time of the Hussites (15th cent.).
Magazine: storehouse. Spanish magacen; Arabic makhzan, storehouse.
Matross: old word for a gunner. German matrose; Latin matarius, a man who uses a mat or hammock.
Mortar: called from resemblance to apothecary’s mortar. Old French mortier; Latin mortarium, from martulus, a hammer.
Musket: French musquet, from the Spanish, meaning a sparrow-hawk, probably from Latin musca, fly, as being the smallest of hawks. First used for the firearm, 16th cent.
Ordnance = Artillery, from the ordinance to regulate calibre and size of guns (15th cent.).
Pistol: from the city of Pistoia in Italy, where made (early 16th cent.).
Pontoon: French ponton; Italian pontone, a great bridge; Latin pont-em, bridge.
Pouch: Old French pouche—poche, pocket; Celtic poca, a bag.
Shell: Anglo-Saxon scell, a thin covering; Teutonic root skal, to separate, peel off; a hollow ball.
Shrapnel: a shell with balls inside, invented by General Shrapnel, British Army (early 19th cent.).
4. MISCELLANEOUS
Base: area on which army relies for supplies and reinforcements. Formed from analogy with the base of a triangle, by the German military writer, Willisen, 1820. Greek basis—bai-no, go.
Battle: French bataille; Italian bataglia; Late Latin battalia, batt-ere, from Latin batu-ere, to beat.
Billet: French billet, a ticket for quarters; hence the quarters themselves.
Bivouac: German bewachen, to watch.
Bugle; short for bugle-horn, the horn of the bugle or wild ox. Old French bugle; Latin buculus, dim. of bos, ox, a bullock.
Camp: French camp; Latin campus, field.
Colours: first use temp. Elizabeth for military flags, because of their gay colours. French couleur; Latin color.
Communications (used by military writers in 19th cent.): Latin communicare, communis, common.
Condottieri: Italian mercenaries. Latin conductitii, led men.
Crew: or detachment working a gun, from French crue, from croître, to grow.
Drum: from Teutonic trom.
Fife: Old German pfifa, a pipe.
Logistics: French logistique; what are now called Staff duties, from logis, quarters, i.e. the Q.M.G.’s duties.
Order: French ordre; Latin ordin-em.
Parade: Spanish parada, ready, or adorned, from parar, to get ready, to adorn, also to parry; Latin parare, to prepare. Brought from the Netherlands to England in 1625.
Reconnoitre: French, to make oneself acquainted with—connaître; Latin cognoscere, know.
Strategy: Greek strategos, a general—stratos, army—ago, lead. The art of the General.
Tactics: Greek taktike (techne), tasso, arrange. The tactical art, or art of drawing up soldiers for battle.
Trumpet: French trompette, dim. of trompe; Spanish trompa, perhaps from Latin tuba.
War: Teutonic werre, strife, connected with worse, and German wirren, confuse.