AIDE-DE-CAMP (Fr. for camp-assistant or, perhaps, field assistant), an officer of the personal staff of a general, who acts as his confidential secretary in routine matters. On Napoleon's staff such officers were frequently of high military qualifications, and acted both as his "eyes" and as the interpreters of his mind to subordinate commanders, even on occasion exercising a dele gated authority. But in modern times, particularly in the British army, they have usually been of very junior rank and their duties largely social. In Great Britain the office of aide-de-camp to the king is given to senior officers as a reward or an honorary dis tinction. In many foreign armies the word adjutant is used for an aide-de-camp, and adjutant-general for a royal aide-de-camp. The common abbreviation for aide-de-camp in the British service is "A.D.C.," and in the United States "aid." Civil governors, such as the lord lieutenant of Ireland, have also, as a rule, officers on their staffs with the title and functions of aides-de-camp. The aide-de-camp of the governor of a State in the United States has the title of colonel.