different between prefect vs colonel

English

Alternative forms

• præfect (archaic)
• praefect

Etymology

From Middle English prefect, prefecte, from Old French prefect (French préfet), from Latin praefectus (“overseer, director, prefect”). Literally 'one having been put in charge'.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?i?fekt/

Noun

prefect (plural prefects)

1. (historical) An official of Ancient Rome who controlled or superintended a particular command, charge, department, etc.

   the prefect of the aqueducts; the prefect of a camp, of a fleet, of the city guard, or of provisions; the pretorian prefect, who was commander of the troops guarding the emperor's person
2. The head of a department in France.
3. The head of a prefecture in Japan.
4. (Britain) A school pupil in a position of power over other pupils.
5. A commander.

Synonyms

• (Roman office): provost (obs.)

Translations

Anagrams

• perfect

Romanian

Etymology

From Latin praefectus

Noun

prefect m (plural prefec?i)

1. prefect (head of county in Romania)

Declension

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.)