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# The Good Oil Word of the Day
- URL: https://goodoil.news/the-good-oil-word-of-the-day-785/
- Published: 2026-10-11T17:15:24.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-11T17:15:23.000Z
- Author: David Theobald
- Tags: General, Word of the Day

The word for today is…

admiral (noun) -

1 *archaic* : the commander in chief of a navy  
2a: flag officer  
b: a commissioned officer in the navy or coast guard who ranks above a vice admiral and whose insignia is four stars  
3 *archaic* : flagship  
4: any of several brightly colored nymphalid butterflies

Source :[ Merriam-Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/admiral?ref=goodoil.news)

Etymology : It is a curiosity of history that the word admiral has its source in Arabic, the language of a desert people who acquired their seafaring skills after the great expansion of Islam in the seventh century. As the name for a Muslim chieftain, the Arabic word amir appears as a loanword in medieval Latin documents in spellings such as amiratus, admirandus, and admirallus. These words display a variety of suffixes and an added d, through confusion with the Latin verb admirari, “to admire.” The ending -allus is probably from the Arabic article al, which actually belongs to the following word in phrases such as amir al-‘ali, “supreme commander.” The application of admirallus to a commander of a fleet originated in 12th-century Sicily, was adopted by the Genoese, and then spread to countries throughout western Europe, including France and England.

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