From Middle English cheef, chef, from Old French chef, chief (“leader”), from Vulgar Latin capus, from Latin caput (“head”) (from which also captain, chieftain), from Proto-Italic *kaput, from Proto-Indo-European *káput.

Doublet of cape (“point of land”), capo, caput, and chef through Latin (possibly also related to cape (“sleeveless garment”) and cap (“head covering”) from Latin cappa); doublet of head and Howth through Proto-Indo-European.

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃiːf/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -iːf

chief (plural chiefs)

1. The leader or head of a tribe, organisation, business unit, or other group. [from 13th c.]

   Synonyms: leader, head, director, commander, governor, boss, administrator, manager

   • 1857 May 11 [1856 March 1], A. S. Waugh, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London, page 346:

     In virtue of this privilege, in testimony of my affectionate respect for a revered chief, in conformity with what I believe to be the wish of all the Members of the scientific department, over which I have the honour to preside, and to perpetuate the memory of that illustrious master of accurate geographical research, I have determined to name this noble peak of the Himalayas ‘Mont Everest.’

   • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 4:

     My father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, was a chief by both blood and custom.

   All firefighters report to the fire chief.

2. (uncountable, only with "in") Headship, the status of being a chief or leader.

   Bob is our troubleshooter in chief.

3. (heraldry) The top part of a shield or escutcheon; more specifically, an ordinary consisting of the upper part of the field cut off by a horizontal line, generally occupying the top third. [from 15th c.]
   • 1889, Charles Norton Elvin, A Dictionary of Heraldry:

     When the Chief is Charged with any figure, in blazon it is said to be "On a Chief".

   • 1956 July, Col. H. C. B. Rogers, “Railway Heraldry”, in Railway Magazine, page 479:

     The shield was silver, charged with a red cross voided (that is, with the centre cut out and only the edges left), between in chief (that is, above the horizontal limb of the cross) two black dragon's wings, and in base two red daggers, and in the centre of the cross a black winged helmet; on a red chief (a broad band across the top of the shield), a silver pale (a broad vertical band), and thereon eight black arrows crossed X-wise, four and four, and encircled with a black band, between on the dexter three bendlets (narrow bands slanting from dexter chief to sinister base) enhanced (that is, raised above the centre), and on the sinister a fleur-de-lis, all of gold.

4. The principal part or top of anything.
5. (sometimes ironic) An informal term of address.
   • 1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 119:

     “How old are you, chief?” the elevator guy said.

   1. (offensive) An informal term of address for a Native American or First Nations man.

• chieftain
• See also Thesaurus:boss

• chiefess, chieftess (female chief)

English terms starting with “chief”

• captain
• chef
• chieftain

• → Japanese: チーフ (chīfu)
• → Swahili: chifu

chief (comparative chiefer or more chief, superlative chiefest or most chief)

1. Primary; principal.

   Negligence was the chief cause of the disaster.

   • 1727, Tobias Swinden, “The Improbability of Hell Fire’s Being in, or about the Center of the Earth”, in An Enquiry into the Nature and Place of Hell. […] With a Supplement, wherein the Notions of A[rch]b[isho]p [John] Tillotson, Dr. Lupton, and Others, as to the Eternity of Hell Torments, are Impartially Represented. And the Rev. Mr. Wall’s Sentiments of this Learned Work, 2nd edition, London: Printed by H. P. for Tho[mas] Astley, at the Dolphin and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard, →OCLC, pages 98–99:

     […] But when we find that they [volcanoes] are but few in Number, and the chiefeſt of thoſe too near the torrid Zone, and from their Tops to iſſue forth, now clear Fire, then thick, black Smoke, and ſometimes little or nothing at all; we muſt conclude, that they are only particular Fires, probably of the Sun’s kindling at firſt, and ſince continued by the caſual and incidental Applications of that Pabulum, which thoſe Part of the Earth adminiſter to them.

   • 2011, Roy F. Baumeister, John Tierney, Willpower, →ISBN, page 113:

     Researchers found that one of the chief effects of drinking was to reduce people's ability to monitor their own behavior.

2. (Scotland) Intimate, friendly.
   • 2006, James Robertson, The Testament of Gideon Mack, page 324:

     'You’re doing it because she was your friend, not because she was a parishioner, and certainly not because of the Declaratory Articles,' Macmurray said, pushing himself forward on his seat. 'Everybody knows how chief you and she were. It was an unfitting relationship for a minister while she was alive, and it is equally unfitting for you to do her a favour like this now she's dead.'

chief (third-person singular simple present chiefs, present participle chiefing, simple past and past participle chiefed)

1. (slang) To smoke cannabis.

• “chief v.²”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present.

• cheif, fiche, fiché

chief

1. alternative form of chef

chief

1. alternative form of chef

From Old French chief.

chief m (plural chiefs)

1. head

• French: chef (see there for further descendants)

• cap (Occitanism found in La Vie de Saint Léger, circa 980)
• chef, cief

First known attestation 881 in The Sequence of Saint Eulalia. From Vulgar Latin capus, from Latin caput.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʃjeːf/

chief oblique singular, m (oblique plural chiés, nominative singular chiés, nominative plural chief)

1. (anatomy) head
   • c. 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Érec et Énide:

     Le chief li desarme et la face.

     He exposed his head and his face.

2. leader, chief
3. front (foremost side of something)

• Middle French: chief
  • French: chef (see there for further descendants)
• Norman: chef
• → Middle English: chef
  • English: chief (see there for further descendants)
  • Scots: chief
• → Old Spanish: xefe
  • Spanish: jefe, gefe (obsolete), xefe (pre-1815)
    • → English: jefe
    • → Central Bikol: hepe
    • → Cebuano: hepe
    • → Tagalog: hepe
  • → Asturian: xefe
  • → Galician: xefe
  • → Portuguese: chefe

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