Paul in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, has long been mystified by the title commander in chief. Why, he wonders, isn’t it commander and chief? The title commander in chief is a vestige of French military titles, specifically the construction en chef, which denotes the top officer of a group of similar officers. The same construction appears in the title editor in chief, which is the top editor of a group of similar editors. The French term, in turn, goes back to Latin caput, or “head,” and is a relative of capital. This is part of a complete episode.
Leave a comment
1 comment
More from this show
According to Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English (Bookshop|Amazon) by Ben Yagoda, the word smarmy, meaning “unctuous” or “ingratiating,” may come from a 19th-century magazine contest, in which readers sent in...
Mary Beth in Greenville, South Carolina, wonders: Why do we say four-oh-nine for the number 409 instead of four-zero-nine or four-aught-nine? What are the rules for saying either zero or oh or aught or ought to indicate that arithmetical symbol...
Apparently this came up in an old episode but my NPR station just broadcast it.
It’s interesting — you analyze this query with etymology, whereas my mind first goes to history or constitutional law. Commander-in-chief is the term used in the Constitution. That’s why we are accustomed to hearing C-I-C and not Commander-and-chief.
Similarly, the claim that use of the word “surprise” is never negative immediately prompted a counter-example: the Japanese “surprise attack” on Pearl Harbor. But the hosts’ reference to a big data corpora of American English usage was a revelation. Ihad never heard of that.
I enjoy the show.