the.com/subordinate
Someone ranked below you on paper, above you in knowing where the bodies are buried.
means A person or thing of lower rank or importance, placed under the authority or control of another.
from From Latin sub- ('under') plus ordinare ('to order, arrange'), the same root that gives us 'order' and 'ordain.' So a subordinate is literally someone 'arranged under' — slotted into a rank beneath another in the chain of command, like a lower rung on a ladder that was deliberately built that way.
- origin
- latin for ordered under, literally rank-arranged
- grammar twist
- also describes clauses that cannot stand alone
- office truth
- keeps the hierarchy running while getting none of the credit
- verb form
- to subordinate means to make less important