[kur-nl] 
| 1. | an officer in the U.S. Army, Air Force, or Marine Corps ranking between lieutenant colonel and brigadier general: corresponding to a captain in the U.S. Navy. |
| 2. | a commissioned officer of similar rank in the armed forces of some other nations. |
| 3. | an honorary title bestowed by some Southern states, as to those who have brought honor to the state, prominent businesspersons, visiting celebrities, or the like: When the vice president visited the state he was made a Kentucky colonel. |
| 4. | Older Use. (in the South) a title of respect prefixed to the name of distinguished elderly men. |
[kur-nl] , with its medial l pronounced as [r], illustrates one source for the apparent vagaries of English spelling: divergence between a word's orthographic development and its established pronunciation. In this case, English borrowed from French two variant forms of the same word, one pronounced with medial and final [l], and a second reflecting dissimilation of the first [l] to [r]. After a period of competition, the dissimilated form triumphed in pronunciation, while the spelling colonel became the orthographic standard.| colo·nel (kûr'nəl) n.
[Alteration of obsolete coronel, from French, from Old Italian colonello, from diminutive of colonna, column of soldiers, from Latin columna, column; see kel-2 in Indo-European roots.] colo'nel·cy, colo'nel·ship' n. |
colonel
the highest field-grade officer, ranking just below the general officer grades in most armies or below brigadier in the British services. A colonel was traditionally the commanding officer of a regiment or brigade. In air forces that use the same titles of rank as the army, such as the U.S. Air Force, a colonel's command is usually a group; the comparable grade in the Royal Air Force is group captain. When not exercising command of a regiment, group, or equivalent formation, a colonel is generally placed in a senior staff or administrative post
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