miércoles, 2 de octubre de 2013

WHEN IS A LIEUTENANT NOT A LIEUTENANT?

Speaking of lieutenants, and continuing with the theme of rank and office in the Bible, the King James Version's Book of Esther uses "the L word" to refer to satraps, province governors of the Persian Empire.
In our days, we tend rather to associate the word "lieutenant" with what the KJV calls a "captain of fifty", i.e. a young subaltern military officer.
It is a French word.
Guillaume du Bartas, in La Semaine (The Week), his epic account of the Creation of the universe, states that God created the first human (Adam or Lilith?) "pour Lieutenant in ce terrestre Empire". There you have it: "lieutenant" used to mean "representative of central authority", as it was in medieval French! The ranks of lieutenant colonel and lieutenant general, also of French origin, started out from this meaning, and so did the office of "lieutenant du roi", province ruler, later on renamed "gouverneur" and "intendant".
In those days when the Crown of Aragon was independent, the Castellón area from Villarreal/Vila-real (literally, "Kingsborough") all the way to Oropesa/Orpesa was actually in charge of a royal lieutenant. The office belonged to the House of Pérez d'Arenós, and the royal lieutenant acted as a magistrate, military commander and representative of the Crown throughout the shire. He was its de iure and de facto ruler. When Aragon was subjugated by Castile, the office of royal lieutenant was lost, and his duties were handed over to French-style magistrates and military officers.
On the other hand, the meaning of "lieutenant" in Germany and Scandinavia has always been "a young subaltern military officer", never associated with any other rank or office than the one we know nowadays.

1 comentario:

  1. Interesting! Good to know. btw, I liked "the L word" And the fact that you refer to French. It occurs to me that this is another (conscious??) intertextual reference (i.e. "Pardon my French + the L word).
    ;-)
    Best for now
    mc

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