Diverse sfaccettature del concetto di headquarters

Etymology of headquarter

Headquarter is a compound word that is formed by two words.
The first one is head and it is used to describe the centralization of all the forces and links which are originated from there.
The second one is quarter and it is used to describe everything that is produced and disclosed from the centre, the head.

In its turn, headquarter can be associated with other words in order to create other compound forms.
These are some examples:
Company headquarter – where all the business is organized
Government Communications Headquarters – the office that administrates all the issues about communications
Police headquarter – where all the police forces are coordinated

In addition to that, headquarter can be used as a verb, but only in its passive form: to be headquartered (= avere sede, acquartierarsi).
For example: I heard that John had started a business of customized shoes and his main lab is headquartered in his garage (Ho sentito che John ha iniziato un business di scarpe personalizzate e il suo laboratorio principale ha sede nel suo garage)

The concept of headquarters

The headquarters of a company or corporation is its administrative center and the place where top management officials work.

For example: Tom looked around glumly. Corporate headquarters had just sent out a memo indicating that about one third of the workforce in IT would be laid off by Christmas because of a budget shortfall. He was already worried. (Tom si guardò intorno infastidito. Il quartier generale della corporazione aveva appena mandato un memo che indicava che un terzo dei lavoratori nel campo informatico sarebbe stato licenziato entro Natale per il taglio del budget. Era già preoccupato)

Military orders

In military terms, a headquarters is the location from which the commanding officers issue commands.

For example: the officer told his troops that new orders had come down from headquarters, indeed, from General Sir Nick Carter himself. As a matter of fact, it was finally time to pull back from the current offensive. (L'ufficiale ha detto alle sue truppe che nuovi ordini sarebbero giunti dal quartier generale dal Generale Nick Carter stesso. Infatti, era finalmente ora di ritirare l'offensiva corrente).

There are several synonyms for headquarters, which can be used in business situations, military situations, or in everyday life. One is home base, which comes from baseball. Another is central command. That one is more likely to be used in military situations, but not exclusively.

For example.
This morning, central command issued a memo that said, in essence, that it's been such a good year for business that everyone will be getting a 10% bonus! That is so fabulous! I will use that money to buy a new smartphone. (Questa mattina il comando centrale ci ha inviato un promemoria che diceva che essenzialmente è stato un anno così buono per gli affari che tutti avranno un buono del 100%! Questo è meraviglioso! Userò questi soldi per comprare un nuovo telefono)

The base of the bird watching club

This is an example.
Once we had enough members in our new bird watching club, we realized that we needed a headquarter. We chose Lyndon's house, because he had easy access to a forest full of birds. (Una volta che abbiamo avuto abbastanza membri nel nuovo club di osservazione degli uccelli, abbiamo realizzato che avevamo bisogno di un quartier generale. Abbiamo scelto la casa di Lyndon perchè ha facile accesso alla foresta piena di uccelli)