generalis

Latin generalis meant "of or belonging to the whole kind or class," from genus, meaning birth, race, or kind. The word had nothing to do with war. It described a quality of universality: a general principle applies to all cases, not just one. When medieval armies began organizing into specialized units, the commander who oversaw all of them — the army in general — was called the captain general. The adjective stuck. The noun followed.

The full title was capitaine général in French, appearing by the late 1400s. Over time, the "captain" part fell away. By the 1600s, a general was simply a general — an adjective doing the work of a noun, which is how English handles many of its ranks. The same pattern gave French maréchal de camp, shortened to marshal. Titles compress under the weight of repeated use.

The rank proliferated. Lieutenant general (a deputy to the general), major general (a shortened form of sergeant major general), brigadier general — each a compound that layered more specificity onto the original vague word. George Washington held the rank of General of the Armies of the United States, a title so expansive it was not used again until 1919, when Congress awarded it posthumously to John J. Pershing.

The civilian meaning never went away. A general store sells everything. A general practitioner treats all conditions. The attorney general handles law in general for the government. In every case, the word means what it always meant: not specific, not limited, but the whole thing. The military just gave it a uniform.