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Glite Dictionary
color sergeant

color sergeant

8.1
A soldier who carries a unit's flag during ceremonies
  • noun
  • /ˈkʌlər ˈsɑrdʒənt/
  • US
translation icon : sargento de bandera
  • During the parade, the color sergeant proudly carried the regiment's flag.

Examples

  • The askari, it seemed, had family in Mombasa, and with a promise of parole in exchange for information, he spoke freely enough, telling me that this particular raid had set out fourteen days before from a camp south of Moshi, led by the same European color sergeant who had died in the bush.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • At the ceremony, the color sergeant stood at attention with the colors held high.

  • The soldiers honored their fallen comrade, the brave color sergeant who led them with the flag.

Synonyms

color bearer
vscolor sergeant
  • US
1 8.3

A soldier who carries the unit's flag in battle or ceremonies

is limited to performing this duty only during formal ceremonies
standard-bearer
vscolor sergeant
1 7.3

A soldier who carries a unit's flag in battle or at ceremonies

is restricted to doing this task only for formal ceremonies

Surface Forms

color sergeant singular
color sergeants plural
colour sergeants plural
colour sergeant singular

Morphology

colors + sergeant

The meaning 'a sergeant who carries the regiment's flags' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'colors' (flags) with 'sergeant' (a military rank). This noun–noun composition describing a role associated with the flags is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Color sergeant comes from a simple image: the word color here means a unit's 'flag' and a sergeant is a soldier who carries it during parades and ceremonies. So the name today means 'a sergeant who carries the unit's flag'.