WORD HISTORY:
Hard-riding marshals of the Wild West in pursuit of criminals reemphasize the
relationship of the word marshal with horses. The Germanic ancestor of our
word marshal is a compound made up of *marhaz, “horse” (related to the
source of our word mare), and *skalkaz, “servant,” meaning as a whole
literally “horse servant,” hence “groom.” The Frankish descendant of this
Germanic word, *marahskalk, came to designate a high royal official and also
a high military commander—not surprising given the importance of the horse in
medieval warfare. Along with many other Frankish words, *marahskalk was
borrowed into Old French by about 800; some centuries later, when the
Normans established a French-speaking official class in England, the Old
French word came with them. In English, marshal is first recorded in 1218, as
a surname (still surviving in the spelling Marshall); its first appearance as a
common noun was in 1258, in the sense “high officer of the royal court.” The
word was also applied to this high royal official's deputies, who were officers
of courts of law, and it continued to designate various officials involved with
courts of law and law enforcement, including the horseback-riding marshals we
are familiar with in the United States.
