Etymology

marshal

M3A1R1S1H4A1L1

Today it means: A high-ranking officer in the household of a medieval prince or lord, who was originally in charge of the cavalry and later the military forces in general. Full definition →

Middle English marschal ← Anglo-Norman mareschal ← Medieval Latin mariscalcus
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

marshal · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*marh
  2. Old High German · derived frommarah-scalc“horse-servant”
  3. Frankish · derived from*marhaskalk
  4. Medieval Latin · derived frommariscalcus“groom, army commander, court dignitary”
  5. Anglo-Norman · derived frommareschal“farrier; military commander”
  6. Middle English · inherited frommarschal
  7. English todaymarshal

From Middle English marschal, from Anglo-Norman mareschal (“farrier; military commander”), from Medieval Latin mariscalcus (“groom, army commander, court dignitary”), either from Frankish *marhaskalk, or Old High German marah-scalc (“horse-servant”), from Proto-West Germanic *marh + *skalk (whence Old Saxon maraskalk, marahscalc). Compare English mare + shalk.

Marshal · proper noun2

From marshal.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.