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chieftainship

 - 3 dictionary results

chief⋅tain

  [cheef-tuhn, -tin]
Use chieftainship in a Sentence
–noun
1. the chief of a clan or a tribe.
2. a leader of a group, band, etc.: the robbers' chieftain.
3. (initial capital letter) Military. Britain's main battle tank since 1969, fitted with a 120mm gun and two machine guns and weighing 55 tons (50 m tons).
Origin:
1275–1325; ME cheftayne, var. of chevetaine < OF < LL capitāneus captain

Related forms:
chief⋅tain⋅cy, chief⋅tain⋅ship, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To chieftainship
chief·tain   (chēf'tən)   
n.  The leader or head of a group, especially of a clan or tribe.

[Middle English cheftain, from Old French chevetain, from Late Latin capitāneus, from Latin caput, head; see kaput- in Indo-European roots.]
chief'tain·cy n., chief'tain·ship' n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

chieftain 
c.1325, from O.Fr. chevetain, from L.L. capitaneus "commander," from L. capitis, gen. of caput "head" (see head). According to "Rob Roy" (1818) a Highland chieftain was the head of a branch of a clan, a chief was the head of the whole name.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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