Common Military Ranks
Navies (English-speaking world)	Armies and some Air Forces	Air Forces (Commonwealth)
Admiral of the Fleet	Field Marshal	Marshal of the Air Force
Admiral	General	Air Chief Marshal
Commodore	Brigadier	Air Commodore
Captain	Colonel	Group Captain
Commander	Lieutenant Colonel	Wing Commander
Lieutenant Commander	Major	Squadron Leader
Lieutenant	Captain	Flight Lieutenant
Sub-Lieutenant	Lieutenant	Flying Officer
Warrant Officer	Warrant Officer	Warrant Officer
Petty Officer	Sergeant	Sergeant
Leading Rate	Corporal	Corporal
Seaman	Private	Aircraftman

Colonel (IPA: /ˈkɜrnəl/) is a military rank of a commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every country in the world. The rank of Colonel is one of the oldest in existence, dating as far back as the time of the Roman Empire, and it is also even used in some police departments.

Today, a Colonel is usually a military title rated as the highest, or the second-highest field rank below the general grades. In some small military forces, it can be the highest rank held.

Origins

The term colonel derives from Latin columnella 'small column'. However, it was never actually a Roman rank. The system of ranks in the Roman military was quite different. As a rank the term arose in the late sixteenth century Italy where it referred to the officer in charge of a column (Italian colonna, plural colonne) or field force. The term is first attested as colonnello, but it is perhaps a truncation of something like capitano colonnello 'captain of the column, the captain designated to command the column'. In this context colonna seems to refer to a force marching in column, rather than to a battle formation — a battle or battlation of pike.

As the office of Colonel became an established practice, the Colonel became the senior Captain in a group of companies which were all sworn to observe his personal authority — to be ruled or regimented by him. This regiment was to some extent embodied in a contract and set of written rules, his regiment or standing regulation(s). By extension, the group of companies subject to a Colonel's regiment came to be referred to as his regiment as well.

With the shift from primarily mercenary to primarily national armies in the course of the seventeenth century, a Colonel (normally a member of the aristocracy) became a holder (German Inhaber) or proprietor of a military contract with a sovereign. The Colonel purchased the regimental contract — the right to hold the regiment — from the previous holder of that right or direct from the sovereign when a new regiment was formed or an incumbent was killed.

In French usage of this period the senior Colonel in the army or in a field force — the senior military contractor — was the Colonel General and, in the absence of the sovereign or his designate, the Colonel General might serve as the commander of a force. The position, however, was primarily contractual and it became progressively more of a functionless sinecure.

The Colonel managed his regiment as a sort of pyramid scheme, and he would in turn receive money from another individual for the right to serve as his designated Lieutenant — 'assistant' — in full the Lieutenant Colonel. In fact the Colonel and his Lieutenant Colonel and the (Sergeant) Major were all Captains of their own companies within the regiment and the Lieutenant Colonel and Major and the other Captains were, in effect, all subcontractors or junior partners in a commercial enterprise. They received in return for their investment — the purchase of their office — a more or less regularly paid salary and certain formal and informal benefits — payments from captured towns, the value of captured military gear, etc. These emoluments might at times degenerate into mere looting and pillaging, or in better organized cases into something like a protection racket.

There were also naturally opportunities for other forms of corruption — misappropriation of regimental or company funds, the collection of excessive payments from prospective holders of an office, and unlawful kick-back payments extorted from subordinates. Sovereigns naturally instituted procedures to rein in the more heinous of these activities, especially the falsifying of musters, or claiming non-existent soldiers 'paid men' in order to appropriate their pay (French solde) and allowances 'money allowed for some purpose'.

The funds to pay and maintain the troops of the regiment were provided by the sovereign; the Colonel was responsible for the whole, and his subordinates for the portions passed on to them. If any were thought to have failed in this or to have been otherwise negligent of their military duties, they were subjected to a court-martial 'military court', and, if convicted, were dismissed ("cashiered"), losing their investment, and allowing the sovereign or Colonel as appropriate to resell the office to another holder. Otherwise, the holder could himself sell out when he left the service or moved to higher rank. He thus retrieved his investment, the only pension he could generally expect to receive. To some extent pensions can be seen as quit-claims offered to survivors of an office-holder, or as retainers paid to an office-holder in a decommissioned unit, a man whose services are not needed now but might be needed in the future.

The ownership of offices tended to revert to the national authorities as military systems became better managed and offices in a commercial venture became ranks in a government service. However, in intermediate cases a consideration might still need be paid to the previous holder of a position, or to the government, if the incumbent was killed. This attenuated system is usually called purchase. In the United Kingdom, supporters of the practice said that the country had been ill-served by the professional non-purchase army created by Cromwell and that the country could only be "safe" from political intervention by the army if it were officered by men "with a stake in the country", that is, propertied men who could afford to purchase a commission.

By the late 19th century, Colonel was a professional military rank though still held typically by an officer in command of a regiment or equivalent unit. Along with other ranks it has become progressively more a matter of ranked duties, qualifications and experience and of corresponding titles and pay scale than of functional office in a particular organization.

As European military influence has expanded throughout the world, the rank of Colonel became adopted by nearly every nation in existence under a variety of names.

With the rise of Communism, some of the large Communist militaries saw fit to expand the Colonel rank into several grades, resulting in the unique Senior Colonel rank which was found and is still used in such nations as China and North Korea.

In modern English, the word Colonel is pronounced similarly to kernel (of grain) as a result of entering the language from Middle French in two competing forms, dissimilated coronel and colonel. The more conservative spelling colonel was favored in written use and eventually became the standard spelling even as it lost out in pronunciation to coronel.

Auctioneering

Those who successfully complete a course of study at an accredited auction school such as Missouri Auction School or World Wide College of Auctioneering among others are given the title of Colonel. Auctioneers who are auction school graduates have traditionally been referred to as Colonel because at the end of the Civil War, the Colonel of the winning army was called upon to auction off the "spoils of warfare". Many articles pertaining to auctioneers place the abbreviation Col. ahead of their name.

It should be noted, however, that the large majority of professional auctioneers refrain from using the title. It is often considered to be offensive to military Colonels and also a bit frivolous. When it is used, it is largely by auctioneers in the U.S. Midwest and South who are likely auctioneers of housewares, also called "Bedbug Auctioneers."

Colonel ranks by country

The following articles deal with the rank of Colonel as it is used in various national militaries.

• Colonel (Canada)
• Colonel (United Kingdom)
• Colonel (United States)
• Coronel (Spain)
• Kolonel (Netherlands)
• Colonel (Pakistan)
• Colonnello in the Italian Army, Carabinieri and Italian Air Force
• Coronel in the Portuguese Army

Eastern European equivalents

Since the 16th century, the rank of regimental commander was adopted by several Central and Eastern European armies, most notably the forces of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Cossacks and then Muscovy. The exact name of the rank maintains a variety of spellings, all descendant from the Old Slavonic word plk or polk meaning standing army (see The Tale of Igor's Campaign), and include the following:

• Plukovník (Czech Republic and Slovakia)
• Pułkownik (Poland)
• Polkovnik (Russia, Slovenia, Bulgaria)
• Polkovnyk (Ukraine)
• Pukovnik (Serbia)

Colonel equivalent ranks

• Oberst (Germany, other German-speaking countries and most Nordic countries)
• Överste (Sweden)
• Aluf Mishne (Israel)
• Sangchwa (North Korea)
• Syntagmatarhis (Greece)
• Taeryong (South Korea)
• Pun ake (Thailand)
• Shang Xiao (China)
• Albay (Turkey)
• Eversti (Finland)
• Coronel (Brazil)
• Oberst (Denmark)
• Dagarwal (دګروال) (Afghanistan)

Other Colonel ranks

• Standartenführer (was a separate SS-rank in Nazi Germany, was not used in the Wehrmacht)

In fiction

• In Battlestar Galactica, Colonel is a commissioned officer rank senior to Major but junior to Commander. The second highest field grade officer rank in the Colonial Fleet, it is often held by a Battlestar Executive Officer
• In the Homestar Runner cartoons, particularly the Strong Bad E-mail "army", Homestar is the colonel of the Homestarmy, however, he pronounces it the way it is spelled (col-lon-nel).
• In Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School, the head of Calloway Military School was a man named Colonel Calloway.
• In Mahou Sensei Negima!, Albireo Imma goes by the alias Colonel Sanders.
• In Cluedo, Colonel Mustard is a playable character. In the movie Clue, see Clue (film), he was played by Martin Mull.
• Colonel Sanders, the mascot of Kentucky Fried Chicken
• Colonel Jade Curtiss from Tales of the Abyss. Field Marshal McGovern notes that he should be an Executive General by now, but that for whatever reason he has chosen to maintain the rank of colonel. Despite being below Generals in the Malkuth Imperial Forces, he is often seen giving commands to them.

Trivia

The "Colonel" is the mascot of Curry College, and Wilkes University from Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Some military forces have a Colonel as their highest ranking officer;

• Royal Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force (170 personnel)
• Military of Benin (4.500 personnel)
• Military of the Gambia (1.900 personnel)
• Icelandic Crisis Response Unit (100 personnel, employed only for peacekeeping duties)
• Military of Luxembourg (has only one branch, the army, with a total of 1.500 personnel)
• Compagnie des Carabiniers du Prince (Monaco) (total of 100 personnel, tasked with protecting the Prince)
• Military of Niger (8.000 personnel)
• Military of Suriname (1.800 personnel)

See also

• Comparative military ranks
• Kentucky colonel

References

• Keegan, John; & Wheatcroft, Andrew (1996). Who's Who in Military History: From 1453 to the Present Day. London: Routledge.
• Cecil Adams of the Straight Dope on the pronunciation of "colonel": http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_250.html