different between commodore vs colonel

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch kommandeur, from Middle French commandeur. See command, compare commend (a doublet), and mandate..

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k?m?d??/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?m?d??/

Noun

commodore (plural commodores)

1. (military, nautical) A naval officer holding a rank between captain and rear admiral.
2. (nautical) A (temporary) commander over a collection of ships who is not an admiral.
3. (nautical) The leading ship in a fleet of merchantmen.
4. (nautical) The president of a yacht club.
5. (nautical) A yacht-club president's vessel in a regatta.
6. (US, military, nautical) A commodore admiral.
7. (US, military, nautical) A rear admiral (lower half).
8. (entomology) Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the Asian genus Parasarpa.

Usage notes

The equivalent army rank is brigadier, senior colonel, brigadier general, or lowest ranking general officer grade.

Synonyms

• (non-flag naval rank): senior captain, fleet captain, flag captain
• (nautical): senior captain, fleet captain, flag captain, shipmaster senior grade
• (flag naval rank): CDRE, COMO (abbreviation)
• (naval rank): Cmdre, Cmdre. (abbreviation)

Coordinate terms

• brigadier

Translations

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch kommandeur, from Middle French commandeur; from Latin commendare, from com- + mandare, from mand? (“I order, command”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?.m?.d??/

Noun

commodore m or f (plural commodores)

1. (military, nautical) commodore, a naval military rank between captain (capitaine de vaisseau or capitaine de croiseur) and rear admiral (contre-amiral)

Synonyms

• cmdre, cmdre. (abbreviation)

Further reading

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

English

Alternative forms

• coronel (obsolete)
• COL., Col. (abbreviation)

Etymology

First attested 1548, from Middle French coronnel, from Old Italian colonnello (“the officer of a small company of soldiers (column) that marched at the head of a regiment”), from compagna colonnella (“little column company”), from Latin columna (“pillar”), originally a collateral form of columen, contraction culmen (“a pillar, top, crown, summit”), o-grade form from a Proto-Indo-European *kelH- (“to rise, be elevated, be prominent”). See hill, holm.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k??n?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?k?n?l/
• Rhymes: -??(?)n?l
• Homophone: kernel

The anomalous pronunciation is probably a holdover of the pronunciation of the earlier, obsolete form coronel.

Noun

colonel (plural colonels)

1. A commissioned officer in an armed military organization, typically the highest rank before flag officer ranks (generals). It is generally found in armies, air forces or naval infantry (marines).

   • The colonel and his sponsor made a queer contrast: Greystone long and stringy, with a face that seemed as if a cold wind was eternally playing on it. […] But there was not a more lascivious reprobate and gourmand in all London than this same Greystone.

Usage notes

• When used as a title, it is always capitalized.

Related terms

• bird colonel
• colonel-general
• lieutenant-colonel
• royal colonel

Translations

Verb

colonel (third-person singular simple present colonels, present participle coloneling or colonelling, simple past and past participle coloneled or colonelled)

1. (intransitive) To act as or like a colonel.

French

Alternative forms

• colonnel, coronel, coronnel (obsolete)

Etymology

From Italian colonnello. Compare Middle French coronel, borrowed earlier from the same source. See English colonel for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?.l?.n?l/

Noun

colonel m (plural colonels, feminine colonelle)

1. A colonel, highest commissioned officer below generals.
2. An ice cream dessert consisting of lemon sherbet and vodka.

Related terms

• colonel-général
• lieutenant-colonel

Further reading

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

Romanian

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French colonel, from Middle French coronel, which see.

Noun

colonel m (plural colonei)

1. A colonel (military officer above lieutenant-colonel and below all generals)

Declension

Etymology 2

Borrowed from German Kolonel.

Noun

colonel n (uncountable)

1. A glyph (A letter in a type of font.)