In civilian terms, ‘captains of industry’ far outrank their military counterparts. This view is generally accepted, but not necessarily accepted by generals.
Conversely, a field marshal on a farm in the countryside is considerably inferior to a Field Marshal—the highest-ranking officer in the army.
Lieutenants—junior to captains—have no civilian equivalent. Except as an odd figure of speech indicating ‘owe tenants.’ There’s no such thing as ‘in lieu’ tenants who could serve as replacement tenants for landlords in need perhaps.
Corporal punishment further illustrates the gulf between civilian and military terminology. In the former, the term refers to physical punishment, in the latter; it can describe something any senior officer can potentially inflict on a junior-ranking corporal.
Major mistakes occur in all walks of life and, as long as they’re not major disasters, they tend to be overlooked.
‘Private affairs’ is an expression returning us to the arena of comparable differences between civilian and military contexts, which needn’t be elaborated upon here. But, it brings to mind the term ‘servicemen,’ which refers to men in the services. When said slowly, it describes what a prostitute does for a living.
Phonetics also creates confusion with colonels. Some of these high-ranking officers are nuts, outside of the army—phonetically speaking—they are completely harmless parts of nuts.
A Colonel is one rank below a Brigadier in the army. Perversely, to ‘brig a deer’ would involve a naval prison, which would be very cruel. One hopes there aren’t any brigadiers as cruel as that!
In today’s army, generals must resent being mistaken—by the general public—for a widely used prefix. It seems likely that no current General will be remembered in the same way as the historical greats like Caesar, Alexander, Hannibal or Napoleon. A visit to a general hospital for these second fiddles to Field Marshals must emphasise their feelings of relative anonymity. I wonder if they react with a momentary feeling of panic when a general election is called? I’m sure you get the general idea…
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