different between commander vs sovereign

English

Etymology

From Middle English comaundour, commaunder, comaunder, borrowed from Old French comandeor, cumandeur, from comander. See command.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /k??mænd?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k??m??nd?/
• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /k??mand?/

Noun

commander (plural commanders)

1. One who exercises control and direction of a military or naval organization.
2. A naval officer whose rank is above that of a lieutenant commander and below that of captain.
3. One who exercises control and direction over a group of persons.
4. A designation or rank in certain non-military organizations such as NASA and various police forces.
5. (obsolete) The chief officer of a commandry.
6. A heavy beetle or wooden mallet, used in paving, in sail lofts, etc.
7. A rank within an honorary order: e.g. Commander of the Legion of Honour.
8. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the Asian genus Moduza.

Derived terms

• commanderless
• commanderlike
• commanderly

Translations

French

Etymology

From Old French comander, from Vulgar Latin *command?re, from Latin commend?re, present active infinitive of commend?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?.m??.de/
• Homophones: commandai, commandé, commandée, commandées, commandés, commandez

Verb

commander

1. to order (tell someone to do something)
2. to order (ask for a product)

Conjugation

Derived terms

• commandeur
• commandement

Related terms

• commande

Descendants

• ? Romanian: comanda

Further reading

• “commander” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Alternative forms

• soveraign, soveraigne (archaic)
• sovran (archaic)
• sovring (pronunciation spelling)

Etymology

From Middle English sovereyn, from Old French soverain (whence also modern French souverain), from Vulgar Latin *super?nus (compare Italian sovrano, Spanish soberano) from Latin super (“above”). Spelling influenced by folk-etymology association with reign. Doublet of soprano, from the same Latin root via Italian. See also suzerain, foreign.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s?v.??n/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?s?v(?)??n/
• Hyphenation: sov?e?reign

Adjective

sovereign (comparative more sovereign, superlative most sovereign)

1. Exercising power of rule.

2. Exceptional in quality.

3. (now rare, pharmacology) Extremely potent or effective (of a medicine, remedy etc.).
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.v:

     The soueraigne weede betwixt two marbles plaine / She pownded small, and did in peeces bruze, / And then atweene her lilly handes twaine, / Into his wound the iuyce thereof did scruze […]

   • a sovereign remedy

   • Such a sovereign influence has this passion upon the regulation of the lives and actions of men.

4. Having supreme, ultimate power.

   Gentlemen, may I introduce the Sovereign, Her Royal Highness, and Most Imperial Majesty, Empress Elizabeth of Vicron.
5. Princely; royal.
   • c1610, William Shakespeare, A Winters Tale, V.i:

     You pity not the state, nor the remembrance of his most sovereign name.

6. Predominant; greatest; utmost; paramount.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     We acknowledge him [God] our sovereign good.

Synonyms

• autonomous
• supreme

Derived terms

• sovereignly
• sovereign citizen
• sovereign state

Translations

Noun

sovereign (plural sovereigns)

1. A monarch; the ruler of a country.
   • 1785, Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia

     No question is to be made but that the bed of the Missisippi[sic] belongs to the sovereign, that is, to the nation.

2. One who is not a subject to a ruler or nation.
3. A gold coin of the United Kingdom, with a nominal value of one pound sterling but in practice used as a bullion coin.
4. A very large champagne bottle with the capacity of about 25 liters, equivalent to 33? standard bottles.
5. Any butterfly of the tribe Nymphalini, or genus Basilarchia, as the ursula and the viceroy.
6. (Britain, slang) A large, garish ring; a sovereign ring.
   • 2004, December 11, "Birkenhead, Merseyside" BBC Voices recording (0:06:52)

     No, someone who wears loads of sovereigns as well loads of gold and has uh a curly perm and peroxide blonde hair, orange, orange sunbed skin and a fringe like this blow-dried to death, that’s a ‘scally’.

Hyponyms

• (monarch): king, queen

Derived terms

• sovereignty

Descendants

• ? Irish: sabhran
• ? Russian: ??????? (soveren)
• ? Scottish Gaelic: sòbharan
• ? Welsh: sofren

Translations

See also

• half sovereign

Verb

sovereign (third-person singular simple present sovereigns, present participle sovereigning, simple past and past participle sovereigned)

1. (transitive) To rule over as a sovereign.

Anagrams

• Rovignese, virogenes