Highest rank of naval officer
Admiral
is one of the highest ranks in some
navies
. In the
Commonwealth
nations and the
United States
, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full"
general
in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above
vice admiral
and below
admiral of the fleet
, or fleet admiral.
Etymology
[
edit
]
The word
admiral
in
Middle English
comes from
Anglo-French
amiral
, "commander", from
Medieval Latin
admiralis
,
admirallus
. These evolved from the
Arabic
am?ral
(
???? ???
) ?
am?r
(
????
)
[?mjr]
(
listen
ⓘ
), "
commander
,
prince
,
nobleman
,
lord
or person who commands or rules over a number of people," and
al
(
???
), the Arabic article answering to "the." In Arabic, admiral is also represented as
Am?r al-Ba?r
(
???? ?????
), where
al-Ba?r
(
?????
) means the
sea
.
[1]
[2]
[3]
The 1818 edition of
Samuel Johnson
's
A Dictionary of the English Language
, edited and revised by the Rev.
Henry John Todd
, states that the term "has been traced to the Arab. emir or amir, lord or commander, and the
Gr
.
?λιο?
, the sea, q. d.
prince of the sea
. The word is written both with and without the d, in other languages, as well as our own. Barb. Lat. admirallus and amiralius. V. Ducange. Barb. Græc. ?μηρχλιο?. V. Meursii Gloss. Græco-Barbarum, edit. 1610. p. 29. Fr. admiral and amiral. Dan. the same. Germ. ammiral. Dutch, admirael or ammirael. Ital. ammiraglio. Sp. almirante. Minsheu, in his Spanish Dictionary, says 'almiralle is a king in the Arabian language.' Amrayl is used by Robert of Gloucester, in the sense of a prince, or governour."
[4]
The quote from
John Minsheu
's Dictionarie in Spanish and English (1599), given in Johnson's Dictionary, has been confirmed as being accurate.
[5]
Additionally, the definition of Am?r (????), as given in
Edward William Lane
's
Arabic-English Lexicon
, concurs, in part, with Minsheu's definition, stating that the term means "One having, holding, or possessing, command; a commander; a governor; a lord; a prince, or king."
[3]
While other Greek words of the period existed to indicate "belonging to the sea," or "of the sea," the now obsolete Gr.
?λιο?
mentioned in Johnson's Dictionary is expressly defined as "of the sea, Lat. marinus, epith. of
sea-gods
,
nymphs
, etc."
[6]
Though there are multiple meanings for the Arabic Am?r (????), the literal meaning of the phrase Am?r al-Ba?r (???? ?????) is "Prince of the Sea."
[7]
[8]
This position, versus "commander of the sea," is demonstrated by legal practices prevailing in the
Ottoman Empire
, whereas it was only possible for
Phanariots
to qualify for attaining four princely positions, those being
grand dragoman
,
dragoman of the fleet
, and the
voivodees
of
Moldavia
and
Wallachia
. Those Phanariots who attained the princely position of dragoman of the fleet served under the Ottoman admiral having administration of the
Aegean islands
and the Anatolian coast.
[9]
Modern acknowledgement of the phrase
Am?r-
al-Ba?r (???? ?????) meaning "Prince of the Sea" includes a speech made in an official
U.S. military
ceremony conducted in an Arabic port, and a news article published by an Arabic news outlet: On 24 May 2012, in a
change of command
ceremony aboard
aircraft carrier
USS Enterprise (CVN 65)
, while docked at Khalifa Bin Salman Port,
Bahrain
,
U.S. Marine Corps
Gen
.
James Mattis
, Commander,
U.S. Central Command
, introduced
Vice Admiral
Mark I. Fox
as "Admiral Fox, the prince of the sea, emir of the sea ? to translate 'admiral' from the Arabic to English;"
[10]
On 04 Feb 2021, in an announcement of his
coronavirus
-related death, the Arabic news website Saudi 24 News referred to Admiral Edmond Chagoury by the title "Prince of the Sea."
[11]
One alternate etymology proposes that the term admiral evolved, instead, from the title of
Am?r al-Umar?
? (???? ???????). Under the reign of the
Buyid dynasty
(934 to 1062) of
Iraq
and
Iran
, the title of Am?r al-Umar??, which means prince of princes,
[2]
came to denote the
heir-apparent
, or
crown prince
.
This alternate etymology states that the term was in use for the Greco-Arab naval leaders (e.g.
Christodulus
) in the
Norman-Arab-Byzantine culture
of
Norman Sicily
, which had formerly been ruled by Arabs, at least by the early 11th century. During this time, the Norman
Roger II of Sicily
(1095?1154) employed a Greek Christian, known as
George of Antioch
, who previously had served as a naval commander for several North African Muslim rulers. Roger styled George in
Abbasid
fashion as
Amir of Amirs
, or Am?r al-Umar??, with the title becoming Latinized in the 13th century as
ammiratus ammiratorum
.
[12]
The
Sicilians
and later the
Genoese
took the first two parts of the term from their
Aragon
opponents and used them as one word,
amiral
. .
[13]
The
French
gave their sea commanders similar titles while in
Portuguese
and
Spanish
the word changed to
almirante
.
[14]
As the word was used by people speaking
Latin
or Latin-based languages it gained the "d" and endured a series of different endings and spellings leading to the English spelling
admyrall
in the 14th century and to
admiral
by the 16th century.
[15]
[16]
It is important to note that the etymology of a word does not suggest the antiquity of the word as it may have appeared in other languages with entirely different pronunciations. The Greek να?αρχο?, for instance, which is pronounced "nauarkh?s," existed from very ancient times in Greece. While να?αρχο? may be defined as "admiral" as used by
Plutarch
in his
Parallel Lives
, the very pronunciation of να?αρχο? demonstrates that it is not a part of the etymology for the English word "admiral."
Further history
[
edit
]
The word "admiral" has come to be almost exclusively associated with the highest
naval rank
in most of the world's
navies
, equivalent to the army rank of
general
. However, this was not always the case; for example, in some European countries prior to the end of
World War II
, admiral was the third highest naval rank after
general admiral
and
grand admiral
.
[17]
The rank of admiral has also been subdivided into various grades, several of which are historically extinct while others remain in use in most present-day navies. The
Royal Navy
used the colours red, white, and blue, in descending order to indicate
seniority of its admirals
until 1864; for example,
Horatio Nelson
's highest rank was vice-admiral of the white. The generic term for these naval equivalents of army generals is
flag officer
.
[18]
Some navies have also used army-type titles for them, such as the
Cromwellian
"general at sea".
[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
]
- ^
"Definition of ADMIRAL"
.
Merriam-Webster
. 16 July 2023.
- ^
a
b
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.
- ^
a
b
Lane, Edward William (1968).
Arabic-English Lexicon, in Eight Parts. Part 1
. Librairie du Liban. Beirut, Lebanon. p. 97.
- ^
Johnson, Samuel and H. J. Todd, ed. (1818).
"Definition of Admiral." A Dictionary of the English Language in which the words are deduced from their originals; and illustrated in their different significations, by examples from the best writers: together with A History of the Language, and an English Grammar. In Four Volumes. Vol. 1
. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown. London.
- ^
Minsheu, John (1599).
Dictionarie in Spanish and English
. p. 20.
- ^
Liddell, Henry George and Robert Scott (1883).
Greek-English Lexicon. Seventh Edition
. Harper & Brothers. New York. p. 62.
- ^
Khalilieh, Hassan S. (2019).
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. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, UK. p. 11.
ISBN
978-1-108-48145-8
.
- ^
"
"Definition of Admiral." Scottish National Dictionary (1700-)"
.
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.
Archived
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2021
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- ^
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ISBN
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.
- ^
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.
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.
- ^
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.
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.
- ^
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.
- ^
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; Selim Hobart Peabody; Charles Francis Richardson, eds. (1899) [1885].
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- ^
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. Vol. 2. p. 48.
- ^
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- ^
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.
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ISBN
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.
- ^
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.
- ^
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.
- ^
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- ^
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- ^
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.
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.
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External links
[
edit
]
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Admirals
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