Adjutant

How to spell adjutant

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce adjutant

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does adjutant mean?

1. nounA military officer who acts as an administrative assistant to a senior commanding officer.

Adjutant in a sentence

• The adjutant handled all the regiment's paperwork and daily orders.

• As adjutant to the colonel, she scheduled every parade and inspection.

Where does adjutant come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin adjutare, meaning 'to help' or 'to assist', which is itself an intensive form of juvare, 'to aid'. The present participle adjutans described someone who was actively giving assistance, and from this Latin source English took the word in the sixteenth century to name a military officer who serves as an administrative assistant to a commanding officer. The role is fundamentally one of helping the commander manage correspondence, orders, and personnel, so the original 'helper' meaning sits neatly inside the modern military post. The same juvare root lies behind 'aid' and 'adjuvant', a substance that helps a medical treatment work better, which is a useful clue to the spelling. The large Asian stork called the adjutant earned its name in colonial India because its stiff, measured gait reminded soldiers of an officer on parade. The tricky part for writers is the unstressed middle vowel and the silent run of letters, since the spoken word gives little hint of the 'd' followed by 'jut'.

How the word is built

• ad- (to, toward)
• jut (from Latin juvare/adjutare: to help, assist)
• -ant (agent noun suffix: one who does)