Batman (military)

A batman or orderly is a soldier or airman assigned to a commissioned officer as a personal servant. Before the advent of motorized transport, an officer's batman was also in charge of the officer's "bat-horse" that carried the officer's kit during a campaign. This British English term is derived from the obsolete bat, meaning "pack saddle" (from French bât, from Old French bast, from Late Latin bastum).

The military term long predates the appearance of the fictional superhero Batman, whose name is etymologically unrelated given his association with bats, the flying mammals of the order Chiroptera.