marshal » martial
Spotted in the wild:
- Mabasha ducked into the car and punched the man on the chin. Hard enough to knock him out, but not hard enough to break his jaw. Mabasha could martial his strength when he was in control of the situation. (Henning Mankell: The White Lioness. Translated from the Swedish by Laurie Thompson. Harvill Crime in Vintage, 2003.)
- Jean Lambert, Green Party spokeswoman and European Parliament member, said on Friday Greens across Europe would martial their forces to blast Bush’s energy policy. (Planet ARK, May 21, 2001)
- Jack pulled on Daniel, rolling him over onto his back. Before he could martial his next argument, warm lips pressed against his and a slick tongue worked at prying his lips apart. (Lianne Burwell: Here We Go Again, July 1999, Zine: Gatecrashers)
- A roadwise traveler might even curl up in the tall soft grass, napping and martialing his energy - safe from would-be human saviors who might think they had a dog’s best interests at heart, but who would casually interrupt his quest forever, so that he’d be kept apart for the rest of his life from the thing he most wanted. (Travelin' Dog, August 16, 2003)
See also marshal(l) law.
1
Commentary by Bill Culbertson , 2006/10/17 at 3:04 pm
Because both marshal and martial have military origins [marshal originally ment “horse soldier” and martial comes from the god Mars] it is easy to see how the two came to overlap. Plus any slurring in rapid speech makes them sound the same.