Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 259, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1918 — Origins of Military Titles. [ARTICLE]

Origins of Military Titles.

Commodore and commander are forms borrowed and corrupted from the Spanish comendador, a knight, a commander, or the superior of a monastery. The French have the word commandeur, the Italian comandatore. Commandant, however, meaning the officer of a fortified town’s garrison, etc., comes from the medieval Latin commands tor, a commander, and eda mandate, to command.