I just had a cog slip in my brain and wrote an article for my notes about the Imperial Navy and its "pretty officers".

I mean, not that they don't *have* those, but still...

@cerebrate Honestly I’d sooner expect the Eldrae’s navies to have those than “petty” officers.

@cerebrate yeah, but I’m saying that with their cultural view of pride and hierarchy they wouldn’t be called something so demeaning as “petty officers.”

I would have suggested “sergeant” but apparently that means “servant.”

Follow

@zarpaulus

Also, etymologically speaking, it's believed to have come straight from the French _petit_ without touching on the English "petty", meaning essentially "officer in charge of a little (specific) area" vis-a-vis "officer in charge of all that".

The corresponding distinction in Eldraeic is probably "executive officer" rather than "policy officer", but no-one except English civil servants would understand that without extensive footnotes.

Sign in to participate in the conversation
Mastodon

a Schelling point for those who seek one