you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 18 points 1 day ago* (6 children)

fun fact: "infantry" comes from "enfant" which is french for "child"

  • source
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

    Enfant iirc means "silent one" because they are the class of soldiers that are historically meant to shut up and do whatever the officers say

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 17 hours ago (1 child)

    From Middle French infanterie, from older Italian, possibly from Spanish infantería (“foot soldiers, force composed of those too inexperienced or low in rank for cavalry”), from infante (“foot soldier”), originally "a youth", either way from Latin īnfāns (“child”); see there for more.

    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/infantry

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 4 points 16 hours ago*

    And "soldier" comes from "solidus", a Roman gold coin. So soldier = one who receives pay. It's more involved than that but basically yeah.

    "Mercenary" also has its roots in "merce" = "goods" or "merchandise". So mercenary is also rooted in payment. Also Mercurius was the god of among other thing commerce.

    Alas we wax etymological!

  • source
  • parent