chieftainess

noun

Etymology

From chieftain + -ess. Middle English had an equivalent form cheventaynes but the OED asserts the term was derived anew in modern English in the 19th century. Piecewise doublet of captainess.

  1. derived from *kap-
  2. derived from *kauput-
  3. derived from caput
  4. derived from capitaneus
  5. derived from chevetaine
  6. inherited from cheveteyn
  7. suffixed as chieftainess — “chieftain + ess

Definitions

  1. A female chieftain.

    • Mrs. Douse was more important than Mr. Douse; she was a chieftainess in her own right, and had great dignity.
  2. The wife of a chieftain.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for chieftainess. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA