Brigadier

How to spell brigadier

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce brigadier

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does brigadier mean?

1. nounA senior army officer ranking above a colonel and commanding a brigade.

Brigadier in a sentence

• The brigadier reviewed the troops before the parade.

• After years of service she was promoted to brigadier.

Where does brigadier come from?

Language of origin: French

The word arrived in English in the early 1600s straight from French, where brigadier meant an officer in charge of a brigade. That French word was built on brigade, a body of troops, which French had itself taken from the Italian brigata, meaning a company or crowd. The Italian word came from brigare, 'to fight or contend', and ultimately from briga, meaning 'strife' or 'quarrel'. So the rank quietly preserves the old sense of a band gathered for a fight. The French ending -ier, marking the person who does or commands something, also survives in everyday words like 'cashier' and 'cavalier', and it is exactly that -ier ending, rather than an English -eer, that catches writers out.

How the word is built

• brigad- (from brigade, a body of troops)
• -ier (French agent suffix: one who commands)