Today, the term marshal can be used as a verb meaning “to gather troops” or as a noun referring to a high-ranking military official. Its origins can be traced back to an earlier meaning of “court officer”. In Old French, mareschal denoted a “household commander”, while in Medieval Latin, the term mariscalcus was used to refer to the commander of a lord’s stables. This can be traced back to Old High German marahscalc, which meant “horse servant”. The first part, marhaz, is derived from the Proto-Germanic word for “horse” (also the root of the word mare from Proto-Indo-European markos), while the second part comes from PIE kelh, meaning “to cleave”. The name Marshall is derived from the noun marshal, although the usage of the term has been gradually declining over time.
