Where does “Admiral” come from?

Admiral comes from Middle English admiral, from Old French amirail, from Arabic أَمِير الْبَحْر (amīr al-baḥr), meaning "commander of the sea."

Admiral (English): A naval officer title

Definitions

  1. A naval officer title

Ancestry of “Admiral”, step by step

Admiral traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Middle English admiral

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishadmiral—
2Old Frenchamiraladmiral
3Latinamiralis—
4Latin-ālis—
5Proto-Italic-ālisforms relational adjectives

via Old French admiral

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Old Frenchadmiral—

Words derived from “Admiral”

Every word from Proto-Italic -ālis →Every word from Latin -ālis →Every word from Latin amiralis →