Admiral

Admiral is a word from the Arabic term Amir-al-bahr (commander of the sea). Crusaders learned the term during their encounters with the Arabs, perhaps as early as the 11th century. The Sicilians and later Genoese took the first two parts of the term and used them as one word, amiral. The French and Spanish gave their sea commanders similar titles. As the word was used by people speaking Latin or Latin-based languages it gained the "d" and endured a series of different endings and spellings leading to the English spelling "admyrall" in the 14th century and to "admiral" by the 16th century.

Admiral ranks by seniority

The following are the various grades of Admiral, listed by seniority.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Several science fiction sources also give mention of the additional Admiral ranks of Sector Admiral, High Admiral, and Branch Admiral. None of these fictional Admiral ranks have ever been used, however, in an actual real world Navy. The rank of Fleet Admiral is also common in science fiction sources.

Related Topics:
Science fiction - Sector Admiral - High Admiral - Branch Admiral - Fleet Admiral

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~