Well hold onto that croissant before you smash it. There's an Italian origin as well and it appears both have root in the current pronunciation and spelling.
But the French word colonel, amazingly for a French word, is pronounced exactly as it's spelled, with no r sound whatever. "Koh-lo-nelle"
The story begins with the Italian word "colonello", from Latin columnellus, the leader of a (military) column, and then was borrowed into French twice. The first time, it became "coronel" (koh-row-nelle) in French, possibly on the notion that it was from Latin corona 'crown' rather than columna.
The form "coronel" spread to English and Spanish before being replaced in French itself by a second borrowing from Italian, this time more correctly as "colonel".
The spelling, but not the pronunciation, of this second form then entered English, leaving us with "l" in the spelling and "r" in the pronunciation.
Now I know you were dying to get to the root of this mystery for years. Leave a comment!
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