sergeant

Origin: From , sergeaunt, serjent, serjaunt, serjawnt, sergant, from , sergent, serjant, sergient, sergeant, servant, from , accusative of a servant, vassal, soldier, apparitor, from , present participle of serve, be a slave to. . The shift from > was a regular development in Old French. Compare cavea > cage, salvia > sage. The fish is so called because of its stripes, supposed to resemble a sergeant's insignia of rank. The pronunciation with is due to a widespread development of Middle English er + consonant (see barn, start etc.). In sergeant, the spelling was standardised in one way, the pronunc. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).