Middle English (denoting an emir or Saracen commander): from Old French amiral, admirail, via medieval Latin from Arabic 'amīr 'commander' (from 'amara 'to command'). The ending -al was from Arabic -al- 'of the', used in titles (e.g. 'amīr-al-'umarā 'ruler of rulers'), later assimilated to the familiar Latinate suffix -al.

• The first recorded meaning of admiral refers to an emir or Muslim commander, and the word ultimately comes from Arabic amir ‘commander’. The Arabic word was used in various titles of rank, such as amir-al-bahr (‘commander of the sea’) and amir-al-ma (‘commander of the water’). Christian scholars, not realizing that -al- simply meant ‘of the’, thought that amir-al was a single word meaning ‘commander’, and accordingly anglicized it as admiral. The modern maritime use comes from the office of ‘Amir of the Sea’, created by the Arabs in Spain and Sicily and later adopted by the Genoese, the French and, in the form ‘Amyrel of the Se’ or ‘admyrall of the navy’, by the English under Edward III. From around 1500 the word admiral on its own has been used as the naval term.