chief – English noun declension

English noun forms of chief

Noun: chief
Singularchief
Pluralchiefs

Sample Sentences

  • 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.’ [1857 May 11 [1856 March 1], A. S. Waugh, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London, page 346:]
  • My father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, was a chief by both blood and custom. [1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 4:]
  • All firefighters report to the fire chief.
  • Bob is our troubleshooter in chief.
  • When the Chief is Charged with any figure, in blazon it is said to be "On a Chief". [1889, Charles Norton Elvin, A Dictionary of Heraldry:]
  • 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. [1956 July, Col. H. C. B. Rogers, “Railway Heraldry”, in Railway Magazine, page 479:]
  • “How old are you, chief?” the elevator guy said. [1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 119:]

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. substratebor.?
3. Proto-Indo-European *kap-?
4. Proto-Indo-European *kap-
5. Proto-Indo-European *káput
6. Proto-Italic *kaput
7. Latin caput
8. Vulgar Latin capus
9. Old French chiefbor.
10. Middle English chef
11. English chief
12. Inherited from Middle English chef, borrowed from Old French chief, from Vulgar Latin capus, from Latin caput, from Proto-Italic *kaput, from Proto-Indo-European *káput, from *kap-, possibly from *kap-, possibly borrowed from a substrate language.
13. 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. See: Latin Nouns 'cappa'.

Verbs referencing "chief"

German Nouns Chef, Portuguese Nouns chefe, English Nouns cifal.