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35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset

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3 source sections across 2 headwords matching “Chief”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.

Open the permanent entry for Chief →Open the permanent entry for chief →
ChiefEnglish (en) · Unnumbered etymologySource text

Named after an Ojibwe chieftain, or chief.

Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗
chiefEnglish (en) · Unnumbered etymologySource text

Etymology tree substratebor.? Proto-Indo-European *kap-? Proto-Indo-European *kap- Proto-Indo-European *káput Proto-Italic *kaput Latin caput Vulgar Latin capus Old French chiefbor. Middle English chef English chief 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. 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.

Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗
chiefEnglish (en) · Unnumbered etymologySource text

Etymology tree substratebor.? Proto-Indo-European *kap-? Proto-Indo-European *kap- Proto-Indo-European *káput Proto-Italic *kaput Latin caput Vulgar Latin capus Old French chiefbor. Middle English chef English chief 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. 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.

Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗

From Wiktionary contributors; extracted by Tatu Ylonen / Wiktextract / Kaikki.org. Extraction source · CC-BY-SA-4.0. Selected source text is reformatted for display; language and section identity are retained.

Source dump: 2026-10-01 · Extraction: 2026-10-30. These dates identify a dump snapshot, not an individual page revision.

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SOURCE SHA-256
5ff2c072f8099f2d2ce484bd6957bf179f046d2ad37bc36555edf8bb84cb5291
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c4c2a77325141846709230e11c2959332acd630d53e52905b72d36211251b081
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73216b9a9b78ed3830994bf853103716f5a4dc57099e371e9f8fdc468facca26
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Chambers (1908)

1908
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