Marshal

How to spell marshal

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce marshal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does marshal mean?

1. nounAn official who keeps order, directs a ceremony or event, or holds a senior rank in some armed forces and emergency services.
2. verbTo gather, arrange, or organise people, things, or facts in an orderly way.

Marshal in a sentence

• noun

  The fire marshal inspected every exit before the building reopened.

• verb

  The lawyer took an hour to marshal her evidence before the hearing.

• noun

  Each parade marshal wore a bright vest and carried a radio.

• verb

  Volunteers helped marshal the crowd toward the correct gates.

Where does marshal come from?

Language of origin: French

Marshal comes from the Old French mareschal, which English borrowed in the 1200s, but the word's deepest roots are Germanic rather than Latin. It traces back to a Frankish compound, marhskalk, built from marh meaning 'horse' and skalk meaning 'servant', so the original marshal was literally a groom or keeper of horses. Because the care of war-horses was a position of real trust in a medieval household, the title steadily climbed in dignity until it named a high military commander and, later, a senior official who organises ceremonies or keeps order. The same 'horse-servant' idea lies behind the common English surname Marshall, which keeps the doubled L that the ordinary word does not. That is the central spelling trap: the verb and the everyday rank end in a single -al, even though the famous family name and the unrelated word 'martial' constantly tempt writers toward the wrong form.

How the word is built

• marh- (Germanic: horse)
• -skalk (Germanic: servant) > marshal; the doubled-sounding ending is actually a single -al, not -all

Words that sound like marshal

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• martial: Relating to war, fighting, or the military.