colonel

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 *kel- (“to rise, be elevated, be prominent”). See hill, holm.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɜːnəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɝnəl/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)nəl

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: kernel

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).
   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 29686887 , chapter I:

     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.

Alternative forms

• colonnel, coronel, coronnel (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle French coronel, from Old Italian; see colonel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.lɔ.nɛl/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

colonel m (plural colonels, feminine colonelle)

1. colonel
2. An ice cream dessert consisting of lemon sherbet and vodka.

Further reading

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

Etymology 1

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

Etymology 2

Borrowed from German Kolonel.