different between captain vs sachem

English

Etymology

From Middle English capitain, capteyn, from Old French capitaine, from Late Latin capit?neus, from Latin caput (“head”) (English cap). Doublet of chieftain, also from Old French.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?kæp.t?n/, /-t?n/
• (US, General Australian) IPA^(key): /?kæp.t?n/
• (naval, informal) IPA^(key): /?kæp.?n/, [?kæpn?], [?kæpm?]

Noun

captain (plural captains)

1. A chief or leader.
   • 1526, The Bible, tr. William Tyndale, Matthew 2:

     For out of the shal come a captaine, whych shall govern my people israhel.

   • 1929, Rudyard Kipling, "The English Way":

     Stand up-stand up, Northumberland! / I bid you answer true, / If England's King has under his hand / A Captain as good as you?

2. The person lawfully in command of a ship or other vessel.

3. An army officer with a rank between the most senior grade of lieutenant and major.

   • "A fine man, that Dunwody, yonder," commented the young captain, as they parted, and as he turned to his prisoner. "We'll see him on in Washington some day. He is strengthening his forces now against Mr. Benton out there. […]."

4. A naval officer with a rank between commander and commodore.
5. A commissioned officer in the United States Navy, Coast Guard, NOAA Corps, or PHS Corps of a grade superior to a commander and junior to a rear admiral (lower half). A captain is equal in grade or rank to an Army, Marine Corps, or Air Force colonel.
7. One of the athletes on a sports team who is designated to make decisions, and is allowed to speak for his team with a referee or official.
   • 2000, Gregory Allen Howard, Remember the Titans

     Captain's supposed to be the leader, right?
8. The leader of a group of workers.
9. The head boy of a school.
10. A maître d', a headwaiter.
    • 1977, Don Felder, Don Henley, and Glenn Frey, lyricists, "Hotel California",

      So I called up the Captain, "Please bring me my wine." / He said: "We haven't had that spirit here since 1969."

11. (Southern US) An honorific title given to a prominent person. See colonel.

Synonyms

• (leader of a group of workers): supervisor, straw boss, foreman
• (commander of a vessel): skipper, master
• (pilot in command): pilot, pilot in command
• (military rank): CAPT, CAPT., Capt., Capt, CPT (abbreviation)

Derived terms

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: kapten
• ? Irish: captaen

Translations

Verb

captain (third-person singular simple present captains, present participle captaining, simple past and past participle captained)

1. (intransitive) To act as captain
2. (transitive) To exercise command of a ship, aircraft or sports team.

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• anti-cap, capitan, patican

English

Etymology

First attested in the 1620s. Borrowed from Narragansett sachem; compare Unami sakima (“chief”), Mi'kmaq saqamaw (“chief”). Ultimately the same Proto-Algonquian root *sa·kima·wa as sagamore.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?se?t??m/, /?sat??m/

Noun

sachem (plural sachems)

1. The chief of a Native American tribe; a sagamore.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 16

     Planted with their broad ends on the deck, a circle of these slabs laced together, mutually sloped towards each other, and at the apex united in a tufted point, where the loose hairy fibres waved to and fro like the top-knot on some old Pottowottamie Sachem’s head.

   • 1983, Howard S. Russell, Indian New England Before the Mayflower (page 19)

     If a sachem was too harsh, a tribesman might leave and join another tribe.

2. (US, politics, historical) A leader in the Tammany Hall society.
   • 1983, Virgil W. Peterson, The Mob: 200 Years of Organized Crime in New York (page 4)

     Aboriginal titles were adopted and the head of each tribe was called a sachem. […] Its proprietor, Abraham Martling, was elected a sachem on several occasions and members of Tammany were often called Martling Men.

Anagrams

• mechas, samech, schame, schema

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English sachem, from an Algonquian language.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sa?.x?m/
• Hyphenation: sa?chem

Noun

sachem m (plural sachems)

1. sachem, Native American chief [from ca. 1700]
   • 1704 January, Europische Mercurius, Vol. 15, part I, pages 82 & 83.