Sergeants

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A non-commissioned officer in the military or police force who ranks above a corporal typically oversees personnel and assumes leadership roles in training and operations
2. In armed services or law enforcement, this rank signifies a supervisory position that entails managing teams, ensuring discipline, and executing directives
3. A military or police rank held by an individual responsible for leading others, maintaining order, and enforcing regulations in various operational settings

Etymology: "Sergeants" is the plural of "sergeant," and the rank's name traces back to a word meaning "servant." Medieval Latin "servientem," a servant, vassal, or soldier, came from the Latin verb "servire," to serve, and passed into Old French as a word for servant. In Middle English it had already become a term for a military or official attendant, and it is a doublet of "servant" and "servient," two words that came into English by another route from the same source. The military sense grew out of that older meaning of a man who serves. Over centuries the word was applied to various officers and attendants, and the modern rank sits between corporal and the commissioned officers above it. Along the way the spelling and pronunciation drifted apart. The "ar" sound in modern speech comes from a widespread English change in which "er" before a consonant became "ar," as in "barn" and "start," but the spelling kept its older form. The fish called the sergeant-major gets its name from its stripes, which were thought to resemble a sergeant's badges of rank.

Synonyms: officer, non-commissioned officer, chief, inspector