1st lieutenant

5.8

An officer in the Army, Air Force or Marines who ranks above a second lieutenant and below a captain

noun
/fɜrst luːˈtɛnənt/

: primer teniente

After completing his training, he was promoted to 1st lieutenant and assigned to a new unit.

Examples

My brother is a 1st lieutenant in the Army, where he leads a small team of soldiers.
My father, Wesley E. Grunden, was a flight engineer on a B-29 and was a 1st lieutenant when he was honorably discharged.

Blog text (11)
During the military ceremony, she proudly accepted her commission as a 1st lieutenant.

Synonyms

lieutenant

vs1st lieutenant

Specialized

614 5.8

An officer in the armed forces who is below a captain and often commands a small unit

is limited to army air force and marines rather than naval use

first lieutenant

vs1st lieutenant

Jargon

4 5.3

A military officer who is one rank below a captain

is the same rank but written with a numeral form

subaltern

vs1st lieutenant

Archaic

1 9.9

A junior army officer below captain, often in the infantry

focuses on the precise commissioned rank directly above second lieutenant

Surface Forms

1st lieutenant singular

1st lieutenants plural

Morphology

one + lieutenant

This is a straightforward compositional noun phrase: '1st/first' (the ordinal) modifies 'lieutenant' to indicate rank. Ordinal + rank constructions are cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows 'one/first' and 'lieutenant' can infer it denotes the lieutenant above the second lieutenant and below a captain.

Etymology

1St lieutenant may come from old words that mean 'place holder'. A lieutenant was the person who could 'stand in for' the captain, and 1st shows this officer is the top lieutenant, the 'second-in-command' today.