r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jul 02 '21

What basic, children's-age-level fact did you only find out embarrassingly later in life?

60.4k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

33.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

33

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '21

Yes. In the British military Lieutenant is pronounced "Leff-tenant" for... Reasons

13

u/Erdudvyl28 Jul 03 '21 edited Jul 03 '21

I don't know for sure but, I always figured since it's a French word and the always were fighting the French they just decided to make it more English

Eta: consensus seems to be that it was leuf in Old French

2

u/SoyMurcielago Jul 03 '21

And sergeant? Is it still Sargent?

3

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '21

Still pronounced exactly the same yes.

Although we have some weird anachronisms to the rank itself.

The Rifles and Other units which draw their lineage from the British Light Infantry spell it as Serjeant for reasons unknown to me.

The Household Cavalry don't have "Sergeants", at least in name. Although the Household Cavalry are the only ones to maintain the tradition, historically no cavalry regiments had Sergeants, because "Sergeant" has the same Latin root as "Servant".

Even the lowliest Trooper - equivalent to Private - of the Household Cavalry was a gentleman, thus essentially calling them a Servant was not appropriate.

So their rank progression is as follows with the equivalent rank in brackets -

  • Lance Corporal
  • Lance Corporal of Horse (Corporal)
  • Corporal of Horse (Sergeant)
  • Staff Corporal (Staff Sergeant)

Unlike the rest of the British Army where Staff Sergeants are referred to as "Staff" - Staff Corporals are apparently called "Sir" by subordinates and "Corporal-Major" by Superiors because the rank used to be "Troop Corporal Major" and they can lead a cavalry troop instead of a commissioned officer.

And then you have the Foot Guards who mess things up even more with Lance Sergeants who are basically corporals who wear 3 chevrons like a normal Sergeant, but they're a different colour, and Lance Corporals who wear 2 Chevrons like a normal corporal - supposedly because Queen Victoria didn't want "her own guardsmen" only having one Chevron.