The First Spear vs First File question.

[Brent Nielsen]

I know this has been brought up before but I have been studying this for a while. A few years ago a re-enactor friend of mine, who BTW does not speak, understand and refuses to use latin when drilling his fellow re-enactors informed me that the term First Spear is incorrect when referring to the Primus Pilus of the Legion. I have since been told by others the former translation is in error and 'File' is the proper usage. Why then does my New College (second edition) Latin English dictionary 1994, say the following:
Pilum-a: Javelin
Pilus-i:a maniple or a company of the triarii;Company of veteran reserve;chief centurion pf a legion;Primus Pilus,Senior centurion of the triarii and therefor the Leion; hair;non pili facere: to care not a whit for.

There is no mention of a file, albeit no mention of spear, but the javelin in Latin comes closest.
FILE in Latin is:for iron woking: lima-ae/ woodworking;scobina-a/ papers:scapus/cabinett;[i]scrinium[/i]/row:ordo/in single: aper ordinem

No Pilus DOES NOT mean File. Primus Pilus cannot mean First File, so where does the notion that it does come from? hock:

[Nathan Ross]

No Pilus DOES NOT mean File. Primus Pilus cannot mean First File, so where does the notion that it does come from? hock:

I think the term is just the closest english equivalent, rather than an exact translation. The word 'pilus' does, as you say, mean 'hair', but was also used for a leading group of soldiers. The 'pilus prior' commanded the leading century of the cohort, for example. In this thread here, which also discusses the subject, Duncan Campbell points out that Caesar often used 'primus pilus' to refer to a senior body of troops, the front or first rank, rather than their commander. This thread also has some debate on the subject.

*Edit: I notice that Ross Cowan (in Imperial Roman Legionary AD161-284, p.12), despite explaining that pili refers to the front rank of centuries within a cohort, still maintains that primus pilus means 'first spear/javelin'!