The Origin of Some Military Terms

The influence of the Roman Empire on Great Britain was deep, and Latin was the commonly used lingua franca at that time. The terms used for some ranks, weapons, cities, and others in many cases have their etymological origin in Latin or old English, or their derivatives in Romance languages. In the military realm, the hierarchical chain of command is defined by ranks such as the word ‘officer.’ In the case of cities, it is possible to know the influence of Roman locations in Great Britain from their names, as in the example of ‘Chesterfield’. Some words come from acronyms of specifically English etymology, as in ‘radar’, while others represent the full meaning of an organization, hierarchy, and so on, such as the word ‘army’.