Uploaded August 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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In this etymological march through the army ranks I'm rewriting the military hierarchy. I've come up with a new order for the rankings of officers and soldiers based entirely on what the titles *actually* mean.

Check out my 'New Military Order' and while you're at, discover:
📗 Why LIEUTENANT is pronounced loo-tenant and lef-tenant/left-tenant
📗 Why COLONEL is spelt in that confusing way
📗 What links a SERGEANT with a butler
📗 Why a FIELD MARSHAL should actually be the lowest rank
📗 Where one should place one's PRIVATES

Check me out on Twitter & TikTok:
twitter.com/robwordsYT​​
tiktok.com/@robwords

==CHAPTERS==
0:00 Introduction
1:10 LIEUTENANT - How to say it (loo-tenant v left-tenant)
3:52 COLONEL - Why it's spelt like that
5:21 SERGEANT - Why it means servant
6:23 MAJOR - What it means
7:12 CAPTAIN - Its Latin origins
7:38 CORPORAL - Nothing to do with corporal punishment
8:16 GENERAL - Why it's so vague
9:09 PRIVATE - Why are they private?
9:57 FIELD MARSHAL - Why they're just a horse servant
11:02 Final Rankings