Captain
title given to a commander
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the commander or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, etc. In militaries, the captain is typically at the level of an officer commanding a company or battalion of infantry, a ship, or a battery of artillery, or another distinct unit. It can also be a rank of command in an air force. The term also may be used as an informal or honorary title for persons in similar commanding roles.
Etymology
The word "captain" derives from the Middle English "capitane", from Anglo-French "capitain", itself coming from the Latin "caput", meaning "head". It is considered cognate with the Greek word katepánō (Ancient Greek: κατεπάνω, lit. '[the one placed] at the top', or "the topmost"), which was used as title for a senior Byzantine military rank and office. The word was Latinized as Ancient Greek: capetanus or catepan. Both ultimately derive from the Proto-Indo-European "*káput", also meaning head.
Occupations or roles
Captain (armed forces), a commissioned officer rank corresponding to NATO OF-2 level. Typically commander of a company size unit, or equivalent.
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This entry incorporates text from “Captain” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.