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
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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