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.
Transcript of “Why is it “Commander in Chief” and Not “Commander and Chief”?”
Hi there. You have A Way with Words.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon. Who is this and where are you calling from?
My name is Paul and I’m calling from Cape Cod on Massachusetts.
Nice.
Hello, Paul. Welcome to the show.
Thank you.
What’s up?
I have, since I was a kid, many, many, many years ago, have been mystified by the title Commander-in-Chief versus Commander-and-Chief. And I have never found anyone that gave me a straight answer on that. If you could come up with a straight answer as to why it’s in instead of and.
Absolutely. Yes, we can.
So you’re saying why is it commander in chief, that’s I-N, instead of commander and chief, A-N-D, right?
Yeah, it sounds like a very peculiar title.
It is. What you’re hearing is a remnant of its foreignism. It’s a construction borrowed from French. You know, when the Normans invaded the British Isles and brought all this French over, a lot of the managerial titles and military titles and legal titles were borrowed into the superstructure of the British way of life. And one of those was this whole en chef idea. Somebody could be en chef, meaning there are a lot of people who do this job, but this is the principal one who does this job. So the commander in chief isn’t the only commander, but he is the head commander. And if you think about chief as being similar to chef, they’re the person that runs the kitchen. They are the top most boss. And actually, even in French today, chef often means boss or supervisor or CEO or head of the company. And so it’s just this little French remnant. And you were very observant. You heard that. You heard that it’s like, this isn’t fully English, right? And it’s not quite. There’s like a fraction of a percent there that still has that Frenchiness to it.
Okay. That’s the solution to my problem.
Yeah, we have it in one other construction in English. You probably have heard of editor-in-chief.
Yes, okay.
So it’s the same. It’s the same construction.
That’s not prominent in my mind.
When you’re talking about a president, it really came into focus.
Yeah, so editor-in-chief, for publication, there’s tons of editors, but this is the one that matters the most. This is the person at the top of the hierarchy.
Okay, terrific.
Cool.
Thank you very much for your information. Really appreciate it. Enjoy the show. Take care.
Thank you very much.
Bye-bye.
All right.
Bye now.
Bye-bye.
Yeah, you know, and the French, en chef, goes all the way back to Latin for head.
Nice.
It’s related to capital and all those words.
Oh, cool.
So head meaning figurative at the top of a thing, right?
That’s cool.
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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.