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From: magnus%thep.lu.se@Urd.lth.se (Magnus Olsson)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Army customs...saluting
Message-ID: <1991Mar14.014317.17212@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 14 Mar 91 01:43:17 GMT
References: <1991Mar4.212815.9865@cbnews.att.com> <1991Mar6.042927.25702@cbnews.att.com> <1991Mar8.023526.10578@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (william.b.thacker)
Organization: Theoretical Physics, Lund university, Sweden
Lines: 18
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From: magnus%thep.lu.se@Urd.lth.se (Magnus Olsson)
In article <1991Mar8.023526.10578@cbnews.att.com> cash@convex.com (Peter Cash) writes:
>From: cash@convex.com (Peter Cash)
>That's a nice story, and may be true for the English "leftenant". However,
>the American "lieutenant" comes from the French, and means "someone who
>acts instead (or in the place of) another" (lieu = instead of; tenant = one
>who holds). 

This also explains the ranks of lieutenant general and lieutenant colonel -
the officers who act for the general and the colonel, respectively.

Magnus Olsson                   | \e+      /_
Dept. of Theoretical Physics    |  \  Z   / q
University of Lund, Sweden      |   >----<           
Internet: magnus@thep.lu.se     |  /      \===== g
Bitnet: THEPMO@SELDC52          | /e-      \q