Highest rank of naval officer
Admiral
is a
military rank
, typically the highest or among the highest
flag officers
in a
navy
. In the
armed forces
of the
United States
and
Commonwealth of Nations
, an admiral?sometimes clarified as a "full admiral"?is the equivalent of a
general
in the
army
or
air force
.
NATO codes
place admirals or their equivalents at OF-9, behind only the
infrequently awarded
rank of
fleet admirals
(US) or
admirals of the fleet
(CON) and just above
vice-admirals
. In premodern contexts, admiral is also used as an informal rank for any commander-in-chief of a navy or major fleet.
Name
[
edit
]
The
English
rank of
admiral
developed from a variety of
Early Modern
and
Middle English
forms
borrowed
from still more
Norman
,
Middle
, and
Old French
and
Medieval Latin
forms, all ultimately derived from
Arabic
emir
(
??????
,
?am?r
) meaning "
commander
".
[1]
The form
admiral
has been standard since the 18th century, a form attested in Norman and Middle French since the mid-13th century, derived from Latin
admiralis
,
admirallus
, and
admiralius
common since the 12th century after alteration of
amiralis
?Arabic
?am?r
with the Latin
suffix
-?lis
?under influence from the Latin
prefix
ad-
, particularly in
adm?r?ri
("to admire, to respect").
[1]
Owing to the similarity of the Latin suffix to the Arabic definite article
al-
(
??
), the word is frequently
folk etymologized
to derive from various longer Arabic phrases,
particularly
?am?r al-ba?r
(
?????? ?????????
, "commander of the sea"),
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
?am?r al-umar??
(
???? ???????
, "commander-in-chief"), or
Am?r al-Mu?min?n
(
??????? ??????????????
, "Commander of the
Believers
").
[1]
Despite the first having been a position in the 10th-century
Fatimid navy
,
the second a
Sicilian
title used for
George of Antioch
in the 12th century that was latinized as
ammiratus ammiratorum
by the 13th century,
[11]
and the last being attested in Latin in the form
Amiralmumin
from the 9th century,
[1]
the derivation of the modern title is known to have developed solely from
?am?r
within Latin.
[1]
A separate mistaken derivation was offered by
Henry Todd
's 1818 edition of
Samuel Johnson
's
Dictionary
, which conjectured that the rank had come from combining
?am?r
with some form of the
Greek
halios
(
?λιο?
, "marine").
In modern English, the term
admiral
is also widely used in translation or explanation of any similar rank in any navy historical or contemporary, including the
Ottoman
Kapudan Pasha
(literally "
Lord
Captain
"),
East Asian ranks
literally equating to "general", and the
Cromwellian
Parliamentary Navy
's own "
general at sea
".
[13]
History
[
edit
]
The position of
?am?r al-ba?r
was used for the commander of the
Fatimid navy
.
The
multicultural Sicilian
king
Roger II
titled his
Byzantine Christian
commander
George of Antioch
am?r al-umar??
in the mid-12th century.
[11]
Forms of this title were subsequently employed by the Sicilians, the
Genoans
, the
Aragonese
,
[14]
the
French
, the
Portuguese
, and the
Castillians
.
[15]
In
England
,
John de Beauchamp
was named
admyrall
of "
the King's Southern, Northern, and Western Fleets
" on 18 July 1360
[16]
and some form of
Lord High Admiral
was appointed continuously after 1406.
[17]
Over time, each of the three main fleets was assigned to
separate color-coded admirals
, each overseeing various
vice-admirals
and
rear admirals
and all overseen by a single
admiral of the fleet
after 1688.
[18]
In similar fashion, during
World War II
, the
American Navy
had several
fleet admirals
and other navies included
general admirals
and
grand admirals
that oversaw the large fleets involved in that conflict.
[19]
NATO code
[
edit
]
While the rank is used in most of NATO countries, it is ranked differently depending on the country.
Admiral insignia by country
[
edit
]
National ranks
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Citations
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
"admiral,
n.
"
,
Oxford English Dictionary
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024
.
- ^
"Definition of ADMIRAL"
.
Merriam-Webster
. 16 July 2023.
- ^
Catafago, Joseph (1858).
An English and Arabic Dictionary, In Two Parts, Arabic and English, and English and Arabic
. Bernard Quaritch, Oriental and Philological Bookseller. London. pp. 26, 30, 324.
- ^
Lane, Edward William (1968).
Arabic?English Lexicon
. Vol. 1. Beirut: Librairie du Liban. p. 97.
- ^
Khalilieh, Hassan S. (2019).
"Glossary of Non-English Terms." Islamic Law of the Sea
. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, UK. p. 11.
ISBN
978-1-108-48145-8
.
- ^
"
"Definition of Admiral." Scottish National Dictionary (1700-)"
.
Dictionaries of the Scots Language
.
Archived
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. Retrieved
25 February
2021
.
- ^
"Vice Adm. Miller Takes Helm of U.S. Navy in Middle East and Combined Maritime Forces"
.
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. 24 May 2012.
Archived
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. Retrieved
25 February
2021
.
- ^
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.
Saudi 24 News
. 4 February 2021. Archived from
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on 24 February 2021
. Retrieved
25 February
2021
.
- ^
a
b
David Abulafia
(2011).
The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean
. London:
Allen Lane
.
ISBN
978-0-7139-9934-1
.
- ^
William Hepworth Dixon
(1885).
Robert Blake, Admiral and General at Sea: Based on Family and State Papers
. Ballantyne Press.
- ^
Harry Thurston Peck
; Selim Hobart Peabody; Charles Francis Richardson, eds. (1899) [1885].
The International Cyclopedia: A Compendium of Human Knowledge
. Vol. 1.
Dodd, Mead & Co.
p. 103.
- ^
Antonio Vieyra (1851).
A dictionary of the English and Portuguese languages
. Vol. 2. p. 48.
- ^
St. George Tucker (1803).
Blackstone's Commentaries..
. Vol. 1. Philadelphia: William Young Birch & Abraham Small. p. xxxiii.
.
- ^
Houbraken, Jacobus; et al. (1747),
The History of England: A List of Admirals of England, 1228?1745
, J. & P. Knapton, p. 271
.
- ^
"Information sheet no 055: Squadron Colours"
(PDF)
.
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on 8 November 2020
. Retrieved
13 February
2019
.
- ^
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(2001).
Grand Admiral
(1st ed.).
Da Capo Press
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ISBN
0306809621
.
- ^
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- ^
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(PDF)
.
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(in Albanian). Archived from
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25 May
2021
.
- ^
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. Retrieved
2021-09-01
.
- ^
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.
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. Retrieved
27 May
2021
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- ^
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(PDF)
.
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. Department of Defence (Australia)
. Retrieved
31 May
2021
.
- ^
"Az?rbaycan Respublikası Silahlı Quvv?l?ri h?rbi qulluqcularının h?rbi geyim forması v? f?rql?ndirm? ni?anları haqqında ?sasnam?"
(PDF)
.
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(in Azerbaijani). Ministry of Defense. 25 June 2001. pp. 64?70
. Retrieved
16 February
2021
.
- ^
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.
navy.mil.bd
. Retrieved
27 May
2021
.
- ^
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(January 9, 2020).
"Conoce la jerarquia de los grados de la #ArmadaBoliviana"
(
Tweet
) (in Spanish)
. Retrieved
28 May
2021
– via
Twitter
.
- ^
"Postos e Graduacoes"
.
marinha.mil.br
(in Portuguese). Brazilian Navy. 11 July 2017
. Retrieved
7 May
2021
.
- ^
"ЗАКОН ЗА ОТБРАНАТА И ВЪОРЪЖЕНИТЕ СИЛИ НА РЕПУБЛИКА БЪЛГАРИЯ"
.
lex.bg
(in Bulgarian). Глава седма. ВОЕННА СЛУЖБА. 12 May 2009
. Retrieved
25 May
2021
.
- ^
"Ranks and appointment"
.
canada.ca
. Government of Canada. 23 November 2017
. Retrieved
28 May
2021
.
- ^
"Los grados jerarquicos de la Armada"
.
armada.cl/
(in Spanish). Chilean Navy. 7 May 2014
. Retrieved
27 May
2021
.
- ^
"Oznake ?inova"
.
osrh.hr
(in Croatian). Republic of Croatia Armed Forces. 1 April 2019
. Retrieved
26 May
2021
.
- ^
"Grados militares"
.
minfar.gob.cu
(in Spanish). Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (Cuba)
. Retrieved
28 May
2021
.
- ^
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(PDF)
.
forsvaret.dk
(in Danish). Danish Defence. 2018
. Retrieved
26 May
2021
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- ^
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.
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(in Spanish). Ministry of Defense (Dominican Republic). Archived from
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2021
.
- ^
"Officerer"
.
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(in Spanish). Ecuadorian Navy. 8 April 2019
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2021
.
- ^
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.
mil.ee
(in Estonian). Estonian Defence Forces
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26 May
2021
.
- ^
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.
puolustusvoimat.fi
(in Finnish). Finnish Defence Forces
. Retrieved
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2021
.
- ^
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(in French). 15 June 2004. pp. 3793?3867
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4 June
2021
.
- ^
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.
bundeswehr.de
(in German). Bundeswehr
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2021
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- ^
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.
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.
- ^
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.
defense.gouv.ci
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.
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2021
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- ^
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(PDF)
.
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(in French). Ministry of Defence (Madagascar). 15 November 1996. p. 2
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2021
.
- ^
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(21 July 2018).
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[Organic Law of the Mexican Navy]
(PDF)
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2021
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- ^
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Hamblin, William James
(1986), "The Fatimid Navy during the Early Crusades, 1099?1124",
American Neptune
, vol. 46, pp. 77?83,
OCLC
1480480
.
- Johnson, Samuel
(1818),
Todd, Henry John
(ed.),
A Dictionary of the English Language...
, vol. I, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown
.
- Latham, J.D. (Spring 1972), "Arabic into Medieval Latin",
Journal of Semitic Studies
, vol. 17, pp. 30?67,
doi
:
10.1093/jss/17.1.30
.
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Admirals
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