Horses and riding in French

Tenth on the list is le maréchal-ferrant, the farrier, and the first half of that name has travelled further than any other word here. Maréchal is a Frankish compound that entered French very early: marh, a horse, and skalk, a servant. It began, then, as the man who looked after the animals, and ferrant was bolted on afterwards to say which of those jobs he did — the one with the iron. English borrowed the bare form and let it climb. « Marshal » first meant that same stable servant, then the officer who ran a royal household and its horses, then a commander of armies; today it also names an officer of a court and, in the United States, the man who arrests you. The French word climbed the identical ladder — un maréchal de France is the highest rank the army awards — and that is exactly why the stable had to keep the second half. Drop -ferrant and le maréchal is a general. One Frankish stable, two careers, and a hyphen holding them apart.