Why does the word colonel (as in military rank) have such a strange spelling compared to how it's pronounced (or vice versa, although I don't know how you would pronounce that)?
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15And don't get me started on the British and Canadian pronunciation of lieutenant ;-)– ghoppeJan 24, 2011 at 21:51
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2@ghoppe, but only in the army and the air force; not the navy.– Brian HooperJan 24, 2011 at 22:55
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Sub-lieutenant Hooper, you are on a charge!– Tim LymingtonMay 8, 2011 at 17:46
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1is it only me or do you hear "kernel" when this word is spoken in the US?– blaJan 30, 2014 at 4:24
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1@BrianHooper, how would a person of that naval rank be addressed by a colleague in their army?– WhiskerBiscuitApr 30, 2021 at 23:56
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2 Answers
It comes from Italian military manuals, and the English spelling preserves the Italian form, colonnello. Two pronunciations coexisted; the r prevailed in English. Spanish took both the spelling and pronunciation: coronel.
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2Collenella meaning 'column', i.e. column of troops. So a colonel is a commander of a column.– user3444Jan 24, 2011 at 22:06
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6It'd be better to say that though it was originally spelt coronel and retains that pronunciation, the spelling was artificially changed during 16th-century spelling reform. Jan 24, 2011 at 22:52
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3The Italian word for colonel is colonnello, which comes from the Italian word colonna (column), which comes from the Latin columna. (My first language is Italian, so you can trust me on that ;-).)– apadernoJan 26, 2011 at 14:16
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As reported from the NOAD:
ORIGIN middle 16th Century: from obsolete French coronel (earlier form of colonel), from Italian colonnello (column of soldiers) from colonna (column) from Latin columna. The form coronel, source of the modern pronunciation, was usual until the middle 17th Century.
The word is pronounced in a strange way because it kept the old pronunciation, while the word changed spelling.
answered Jan 26, 2011 at 14:49
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