Etymology

état major

Today it means: The staff of an army, including all officers above the rank of colonel, all adjutants, inspectors, quartermasters, commissaries, engineers, ordnance officers, paymasters, physicians, signal officers, and judge advocates, and their noncommissioned assistants. Full definition →

Latin major
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The story

  1. Latin · derived frommajor“greater”
  2. English todayétat major

Unadapted borrowing from French, from état (“state”) + Latin major (“greater”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.