Batman (military) Batman (military) A batman or an orderly is a soldier or airman assigned to a commissioned officer as a personal servant. Before the advent of motorized transport, an officer's batman was also in charge of the officer's "bat-horse" that carried the pack saddle with his officer's kit during a campaign. The U.K. English term is derived from the obsolete "bat", meaning "pack saddle" (from French "bât", from Old French "bast", from Late Latin "bastum"). A batman's duties often include: The action of serving as a batman was referred to as "batting". In armies where officers typically came from the upper
Soldier Soldier A soldier is one who fights as part of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. The word "soldier" derives from the Middle English word "soudeour", from Old French "soudeer" or "soudeour", meaning mercenary, from "soudee", meaning shilling's worth or wage, from "sou" or "soud", shilling. The word is also related to the Medieval Latin "soldarius", meaning soldier (literally, "one having pay"). These words ultimately derive from the Late Latin word "solidus", referring to an Ancient Roman coin used in the Byzantine Empire. In most armies use of