Origin Story
Would you believe that infantry, meaning foot soldiers, shares a root with infant, meaning baby? The Latin infans meant "one who cannot yet speak" — in other words, a small child. In medieval Italy, a young recruit not yet dubbed a knight, or a green soldier who followed the knights into battle on foot, was called an infante ("a youth"). Beside the proud, mounted knight, he was just a rookie traveling on his own two feet. A band of these young soldiers was called an infanteria, and that word passed through French to become the English infantry. So the name of the sturdiest force on the ground began, of all places, with "a child too young to speak."
The Spanish royal titles infanta and infante — for the king's daughters and sons — come from the very same root, meaning "the children of the king." A single Latin word ended up in two utterly different places: the foot soldier and the royal heir.
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Online Etymology Dictionaryinfantry (n.): 1570s, from French infanterie, from Italian infanteria "foot soldiers," from infante "foot soldier," originally "a youth," from Latin infantem "young child"
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Oxford English Dictionaryinfantry: from Italian infanteria, from infante "youth, foot soldier," from Latin infans
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Merriam-Webster Dictionaryfrom Italian infanteria, from infante boy, foot soldier, from Latin infant-, infans infant
Word Evolution
Words from the Same Root
Memory Hook
Spot infant ("baby") hiding inside infantry. Remember it as: "the young soldier who never made knight fights on foot."
""The name of the sturdiest force on the ground began with a child too young to speak.""
