Colonel

Colonel (Lat. columna, a column, or, according to some, corona, a crown), a word used in the English army to denote the commander of a regiment. The post is becoming obsolete, and is only used to reward the services of a superior officer by giving him the pay attaching to it. Each battalion of a regiment is really administered by its own lieutenant-colonel. The colonelcy of a regiment is often bestowed as a compliment upon princes, even foreign ones, and upon crowned heads, and in some countries upon women.