# Where did the names for the low US enlisted ranks come from?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-names-for-the-low-us-enlisted-ranks-come-from/334852>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 9, 2005, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-names-for-the-low-us-enlisted-ranks-come-from/334852 "2005-12-09T09:17:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2005, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-names-for-the-low-us-enlisted-ranks-come-from/334852/21 "2005-12-11T01:22:44Z")

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> [@Bookkeeper](#):
>
> I’ve run across dirty jokes from as far back as the 1850s that use the terms.

I’ve been wracking my brain trying to remember a naughty bit of Jane Austen’s along those lines.

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**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2005, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-names-for-the-low-us-enlisted-ranks-come-from/334852/22 "2005-12-11T01:27:00Z")

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> [@jrfranchi](#):
>
> [corporal](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=corporal) (n.)  
> 1579, from [M.Fr](http://M.Fr). corporal, from It. caporale “a corporal,” from capo “chief, head,” from L. caput “head” (see head). So called because he was in charge of a body of troops. Perhaps infl. by It. corpo, from L. corps “body.” Or corps may be the source and caput the influence, as the OED believes.

In the Italian military, the lower-ranking NCOs are still called “capo” , and in the French, “caporal”. So the first derivation looks favored if only from the word-structure. Proves nothing about the English form though, since the English may have just picked up the word and shoehorned it into a military organization not necessarily identical to the Italian. Or else something happened analogous to how “colonello”, on the way to becoming Spanish and English, picked up an “r” in both languages’ pronunciation but only one’s spelling.

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