Etymologically
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commodore

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈkɒm.ə.dɔː/[1]
  • US: /ˈkɑ.mə.dɔɹ/[1]

Etymology

It was earlier commandore,[2][3][4][5] probably borrowed from Dutch commandeur (“commander”),[6][3][2][7][8] with the second syllable reduced,[7] from French commandeur,[6][2][9] from Old French comandeor, from comander (“to command”),[2][6] the source of command and commander.[10][2] In 17th-century Dutch the word was used of a naval officer commanding part of a squadron.[7] Hoad and Weekley think the ending points to an influence of Spanish or of Portuguese,[4][11] and Johnson (1755) took it as a corruption of Spanish comendador;[12][11] the OED finds formal problems in that idea, and no sign of contact with Spain or its empire in the early records.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A naval officer commanding a convoy, squadron or fleet: 1634, in a letter of R. Allnutt among the records of the English factories.[7] Barnhart dates the form commandore to 1694,[2] Merriam-Webster to 1695,[6] and Etymonline to the 1690s.[10]

Semantic evolution

Weekley notes the forms commandore and commadore in the time of William III.[11] By 1676 the word was a fixed rank, above captain and below rear admiral;[7] Johnson (1755) defined it as the captain who commands a squadron, and in 1773 added "a temporary admiral".[12] The United States Navy created the rank in 1862.[10] The title spread to the senior captain of a pilot service (1794), of a merchant fleet (1854) and to the president of a yacht club (1824).[7] The word was also used of the ship carrying a commodore, from 1694.[7][3]

Timeline

  • 1634 – a naval officer commanding a convoy or squadron.[7]
  • 1676 – a naval rank above captain and below rear admiral.[7]
  • 1694 – a ship carrying a commodore; the form commandore.[7][2]
  • 1794 – the senior captain of a pilot service.[7]
  • 1824 – the president of a yacht club.[7]
  • 1854 – the senior captain of a merchant fleet.[7]
  • 1862 – rank created in the United States Navy.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An officer in a navy, ranking above a captain and below a rear admiral.[6][13][7]
  2. A captain temporarily commanding a squadron or division of a fleet.[6][7]
  3. The senior captain of a shipping line or merchant fleet, or the officer commanding a convoy of merchant ships.[13][7]
  4. The head of a yacht club or boat club.[13][7]
  5. (historical) The ship carrying a commodore.[7][3]

Word family

  • air commodore

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins