adjutant
/ˈadʒʊt(ə)nt
/noun
1A military officer who acts as an administrative assistant to a senior officer: he eventually became adjutant to the commander of the tactical air force...
- About that time Sharman became the regimental adjutant, its commanding officer's principal assistant.
- General Custer and his adjutant, Colonel Cooke, could be seen, lighting matches and candles in advance, trying to find the trail, which they succeeded in doing in a short time.
- The battalion adjutant sent me to the C Company command post by Jeep.
1.1A person’s assistant or deputy: Hoare was his adjutant in all the talks with the government...
- The subsequent departure in the same direction of his backroom adjutants Jim and Kevin intensified the bad feeling.
- They are generally millionaires to begin with, and, in any case, they and their adjutants make a seamless transition from places of power to the media, the upper ranks of private enterprise and so forth.
2 (also adjutant stork or adjutant bird) A large black-and-white stork with a massive bill and a bare head and neck, found in India and SE Asia.
- Genus Leptoptilos, family Ciconiidae: two species.
- But the researchers involved are quite hopeful that the simple netting technique will be a first step toward increasing the overall numbers of the greater adjutant stork.
- The man turned himself in to police in Buritam Province as they searched for him on suspicion he had killed a greater adjutant stork last week.
Derivatives
adjutancy
/ noun ...- Adjutant- John L. Smith of Dallas is promoted to the adjutancy of the brigade.
- Due to deficiencies in mathematics, he had to spend an extra year at West Point, but his superb military skills gained him the cadet adjutancy his final year.
- He later transferred to the adjutancy of Virginia's Northern Neck and Eastern Shore with the responsibility of training the Northern District's militiamen.
Origin
Early 17th century (in the sense 'assistant, helper'): from Latin adjutant- 'being of service to', from adjutare, frequentative of adjuvare 'assist' (see adjuvant).
An adjutant was originally an ‘assistant, helper’; the origin is Latin adjutant- ‘being of service to’, from adjuvare ‘assist’. The term now usually describes an officer assisting a senior officer with administrative matters.