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You are here: Home / Language / Where Did the Term “Right Hand Man” For Someone Indispensable Come From and What Does it Mean?

Where Did the Term “Right Hand Man” For Someone Indispensable Come From and What Does it Mean?

June 1, 2020 by Karen Hill

The term right-hand man refers to someone indispensable to the person in charge and derives from the military.

Today, when soldiers line up on a parade square, they are copying the alignment employed when armies used to face, then approach, each other in lines for mortal or pitched combat.

The tallest or “right-marker” is the first called into position, and all others line up in a sequence of diminishing height to his left.

The right-marker is the anchor and reference for all verbal commands off whom the other soldiers react both on the parade square and during battle.

A line of soldiers is called a “pitch.”

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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