Ecclesiastics (courtesy of Boneman):
–noun
1. a member of the clergy or other person in religious orders.
2. a member of the ecclesia in ancient Athens.
Prefect (Courtesy of Alastair Reynolds):
-noun
1. a person appointed to any of various positions of command, authority, or superintendence, as a chief magistrate in ancient Rome or the chief administrative official of a department of France or Italy.
2. Roman Catholic Church.
a. the dean of a Jesuit school or college.
b. a cardinal in charge of a congregation in the Curia Romana.
3. Chiefly
British. a praeposter*
*Praepostor (sometimes spelt Praepositor) is now used chiefly at English independent schools, such as Rugby and Uppingham, and at other schools such as the former Derby School which began as grammar schools for the teaching of Latin grammar. It is the equivalent of prefect. The word originally referred to a monastic prior and is late Latin of the Middle Ages, derived from classical Latin praepositus, "placed before".
The use of praepostor in the context of a school is derived from the practice of using older children to lead or control younger children. This originally involved both leading in lessons and keeping general discipline, but latterly it involved only discipline.
Children helping to lead classes were also called monitors, and the terms praepostor and monitor are roughly equivalent to prefect and sub-prefect in many other English schools.
Spallation:
n.
A nuclear reaction in which many particles are ejected from an atomic nucleus by incident particles of sufficiently high energy.
also see
Spallation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
P.S. - Regarding the discussion of Lieutenant, I know for example (in the U.S.) that one must be a Lieutenant before becoming a captain, but I always wondered what the British term Sergeant-Major meant, or where they fall in the chain of command.
