chieftain

English

Etymology

From Middle English cheveteyn, cheftayne, from Old French chevetaine, from Late Latin capitaneus (English captain), from Latin caput (“head”), from Proto-Indo-European *kauput- (English head), itself from Proto-Indo-European *kap-. Doublet of captain and chief.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃiːf.tən/, /ˈt͡ʃiːf.tɪn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

chieftain (plural chieftains)

1. A leader of a clan or tribe.
   • 1970, Kazimierz Godłowski, “The chronology of the Late Roman and early migration periods in Central Europe”, in Acta scientiarum litterarumque: Schedae archeologicae‎^[1], Nakładem Uniwersytetu Jagiellonśkiego, page 22:

     They were probably the work of individual craftsmen working to meet the chieftains' needs. Their place in the chronology of the big cemeteries is indicated by the less richly-decorated double-springed bronze brooches which are found here.

2. (by extension) A leader of a group.

   The robber chieftain divided up the spoils.

Synonyms

• (leader of a clan or tribe): chief, big gun, big shot, big wheel, bigwig, boss, employer, foreman, head, leader, mandarin, manager, mover and shaker, top banana, top dog, tycoon

Derived terms

• chieftaincy
• chieftaindom
• chieftainess, chieftess
• chieftainly
• chieftainry
• chieftainship
• subchieftain
• underchieftain

 

Translations

A leader of a clan or tribe

• Albanian: pringj m, prijës (sq) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 族長／族长 (zh) (zúzhǎng)

• Czech: náčelník (cs) m
• Danish: høvding c
• Dutch: stamhoofd (nl) n, opperhoofd (nl) n
• Esperanto: tribestro
• Estonian: pealik
• Faroese: ættarhøvdingur m (biblical)
• German: Häuptling (de) m
• Hungarian: törzsfőnök (hu)
• Icelandic: höfðingi (is)
• Indonesian: kepala suku (id)
• Irish: ceann fine m, taoiseach m
• Italian: capo (it) m, capotribù (it)
• Japanese: 酋長 (ja) (しゅうちょう, shūchō)
• Khmer: មេកន្ទ្រាញ (km) (me kon treanh)
• Korean: 족장(族長) (ko) (jokjang), 추장(酋長) (ko) (chujang)
• Lakota: itȟáŋčhaŋ
• Latin: procer m
• Macedonian: поглавар m (poglavar)
• Maori: rangatira (mi) m
• Middle Korean: 어비〮ᄆᆞᆮ (èpímòt)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: høvding (no) m

  Nynorsk: høvding m

• Occitan: cap (oc) m, capmèstre (oc) m
• Old Tupi: morubixaba
• Polish: wódz (pl) m
• Portuguese: cacique (pt) m, morubixaba (pt) m, tuxaua m (of Indigenous Brazilians), chefe (pt) m
• Russian: вождь (ru) m (voždʹ)
• Samoan: matai, ao (sm)
• Scots: chieftain
• Scottish Gaelic: ceann-cinnidh m
• Slovak: náčelník m, vodca m
• Spanish: cacique (es) m, caudillo (es) m, jefe (es) m, jeque (es) m, cabecilla (es) m
• Swedish: hövding (sv) c
• Tok Pisin: bigman
• Turkish: kabile reisi

A leader of a group, e.g. a robbers' chieftain

• Dutch: bendeleider (nl) m
• Italian: capo (it) m
• Khmer: មេកន្ទ្រាញ (km) (me kon treanh)
• Occitan: cap (oc) m
• Portuguese: manda-chuva (pt) m or f, chefe (pt) m
• Russian: глава́рь (ru) m (glavárʹ), атама́н (ru) m (atamán)
• Spanish: líder (es) m, jefe (es) m
• Swedish: ledare (sv) c

Scots

Etymology

From Middle Scots chiftane, chyftane, from Early Scots chefftane, from Middle English cheftayne, from Old French chevetaine, from Late Latin capitaneus, from Latin caput (“head”), from Proto-Indo-European *kauput-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [tʃiften]

Noun

chieftain (plural chieftains)

1. chieftain
2. (possibly) schore; leader of a Highlands clan

References

• “chieftain”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.