Other forms: officers
An officer is somebody holding a position of authority in the forces or the police. The rank that gives orders.
In the military there is a sharp line between commissioned officers and the other ranks, and it shapes everything from pay to where you eat. In the police every constable is an officer, so the word covers the whole force rather than the top of it. Civilian organisations use it too, and a press officer, a chief executive officer and a customs officer are all standard. Addressing a police officer as officer is normal in America and slightly odd in Britain.
1nounofficerA person holding a position of authority in the armed forces or police.~55%
“Two officers were sent to the address.”
2nounpostA person holding a post of responsibility in an organisation.~45%
“She is the company's chief financial officer.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 20 sentences found in the wild and placed 20 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
An officer is the person attached to an office. Latin officium plus the ending ārius makes the one who handles the thing, so the paperwork came before the rank.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₃ep-
Latin
officiarius — official
Old French
officer
Anglo-Norman
officer
Middle English
officer
English, today
officer
Built from
From Middle English officer, from Anglo-Norman officer, officier, from Old French officer, Latin officiarius (“official”), from Latin officium (“office”) + -ārius (“-er”). by surface analysis, office + -er.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA