Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Epaulette
/ˈɛpəlɛt/noun
An ornamental shoulder piece on a uniform, usually carrying marks of rank.
The Greek roots
σπάθη
spáthē
broad flat blade
Literally: “little shoulder blade”
Follow a root:σπάθη2 words
The story of the word
A σπάθη was a broad flat blade: the bar a weaver used to beat threads down, and later the long sword of the Roman cavalry. Latin's diminutive spatula came to mean the shoulder blade on the same resemblance, went into French as épaule, the shoulder, and épaulette is the little piece worn on it. Rank braid on a modern uniform therefore traces back to a weaving tool.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 18th century
Same family
spatulaspatheepee
In a sentence
He had the epaulettes cut off the coat before he sold it.