Admiral is the
rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest
naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral (equivalent to full
general) and above
Vice Admiral and below
Admiral of the Fleet/
Fleet Admiral. It is usually abbreviated to "Adm." or "ADM". Where relevant, Admiral is a
4 star rank.
History and origins
The word Admiral in Middle English comes from Anglo-French
amiral, "commander", from
Medieval Latin admiralis, "emir",
admirallus, "admiral", from
Arabic amir-al- , "commander of the" (as in
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, from their
Catalan opponents. The
French and
Spanish gave their sea commanders similar titles while in
Portuguese the word changed to
almirante. 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.
The word Admiral has today come to be almost exclusively associated with the highest
naval rank in most of the world's
navies, equivalent to the Army rank of (Full)
General. However, this wasn't always the case; for example, in some European countries prior to the end of
World War II, Admiral was the third highest naval rank behind
General Admiral and
Grand Admiral.
The rank of Admiral has also been subdivided into various grades, several of which are historically extinct while others are used by most present day navies. The
Royal Navy used colours (red, white, and blue, in descending order) to indicate the
seniority of its admirals until 1864; for example,
Horatio Nelson's highest rank was Vice Admiral of the White. The generic term for these naval equivalents of army generals is
Flag Officer. Some navies have also used army-type titles for them, such as the
Cromwellian
General at
Sea.
Admiral insignia by country
The rank insignia for an Admiral often involves four stars, but as can be seen below, there are many cases where the insignia for this four star rank do
not involve four stars.
See also
