constablen.

Etymology: Middle English, < Old French cunestable, conestable (modern French connétable = Provençal conestable, Spanish condestable, Portuguese condestavel, Italian conestabile), representing late Latin comes stabulī count or officer of the stable, marshal (in the Theodosian Code a.d. 438, Gregory of Tours 575), corresponding to the earlier tribūnus stabulī (Ammianus), whence later comesta-, conestabulus: Skeat quotes from a document under date 807, ‘comes stabuli quem corrupte conestabulum appellamus’. Other medieval Latin forms were comestabilis, conestabilis, etc.: see Du Cange. The early development of the sense, whereby the comes stabuli, from being the head groom of the stable, became the principal officer of the household of the Frankish kings, and of the great feudatories, and the field-marshal or commander-general of the army, had taken place before the word came into English; the development was parallel to that of marshal. The earlier English uses were simply taken over from French.