APPENDIX A
ORIGIN OF MILITARY TERMS
This chapter is intended to give an explanation of the way in which military terms—especially those connected with Organization—came to have their present technical meaning. Their derivation and, in some cases, the date of their introduction are given. Many of these terms have been noticed in the body of the text, and their origin mentioned. They are here collected for facility of reference.
It will be noted that most of our commonest military terms are of considerable antiquity, and that they are essentially cosmopolitan words, widespread in use through Western Europe. Most of them were introduced in Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The terms are arranged alphabetically in four lists:
1. Ranks and Offices.
2. Names of the different varieties of Troops, and of their Units and Formations.
3. Arms and Accoutrements.
4. Miscellaneous.
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.