different between chef vs captain

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French chef (from the positions of chef d'office and chef de cuisine), from Old French chief (“head, leader”) (English chief), from Vulgar Latin capus (“head”) (from which also captain, chieftain), from Latin caput (“head”) (English cap (“head covering”)), from Proto-Indo-European *kauput- (English head).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??f/
• Rhymes: -?f

Noun

chef (plural chefs)

1. The presiding cook in the kitchen of a large household.
   • <1845, R. H. Barham, Blasphemer's Warning in Ingoldsby Legends (1847), 3rd Ser., 245

     The Chef's peace of mind was restor'd, And in due time a banquet was placed on the board.

2. The head cook of a restaurant or other establishment.
   • 1849, Thackeray, Pendennis (1850), I. xxviii. 266

     The angry little chef of Sir Francis Clavering's culinary establishment.

3. Any cook.
   • Kiss the chef. (slogan on aprons used by home barbecue enthusiasts)
4. (slang) One who manufactures illegal drugs; a cook.
   • 1998, SPIN (volume 14, number 3, page 100)

     But trying to stop all the nation's meth chefs makes as much sense as building a wall along the Mexican border.

   • 2013, Mike Power, Drugs 2.0

     Owsley Stanley, the world's most exacting and prolific LSD chef who supplied the majority of America's West Coast with LSD in the 1960s, claimed he made so much acid not because he wanted to change the world, but rather because it was almost impossible not to make vast quantities of the drug once the synthesis had been embarked upon.

5. (historical) A reliquary in the shape of a head.

Usage notes

When used in reference to a cook with no sous-chefs or other workers beneath him, the term connotes a certain degree of prestige—whether culinary education or ability—distinguishing the chef from a “cook”. As a borrowing, chef was originally italicized, but such treatment is now obsolete.Within a catering establishment, the head cook (and no-one else) will normally be addressed simply as "chef" as a term of respect.

Derived terms

• chefly

Hypernyms

• (cook): cook

Synonyms

• (cook, particularly a learned or skilful one): magirist, magirologist (obs.)

Translations

Verb

chef (third-person singular simple present chefs, present participle cheffing, simple past and past participle cheffed)

1. (informal) To work as a chef; to prepare and cook food professionally.
   • 1996, Sonora Review (issue 31, page 110)

     I cheffed part-time at a nice restaurant in town.

2. (MLE, transitive) To stab with a knife, to shank.

References

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from French chef.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?????f]

Noun

chef c (singular definite chefen, plural indefinite chefer)

1. A boss; person in charge, person who directly oversees the work being done

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French chef.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??f/
• Hyphenation: chef
• Rhymes: -?f

Noun

chef m (plural chefs, diminutive chefje n, feminine cheffin)

1. A boss, chief, head, leader.

   Synonym: baas

2. A culinary chef, a head cook.

   Synonym: chef-kok

3. Short for a title including chef.

Derived terms

• chef-kok
• sergeant-chef
• stationschef

Descendants

• ? Indonesian: sep

French

Etymology

From Middle French chief, from Old French chief, from Vulgar Latin capus, from Latin caput (“head”), from Proto-Italic *kaput, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kauput-, *kaput-. Doublet of cap.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??f/
• Rhymes: -?f
• Homophones: cheffe, cheffes, chefs

Noun

chef m (plural chefs)

1. (now literary) head

2. article, principal point.

   Les principaux chefs d’une demande.

   The main points of a request.

3. principal motive, charge, count of indictment

   Le procureur a tenu à refaire une lecture des chefs d’accusation.

   The prosecutor insisted on reading off the counts of indictment again.

4. (heraldry) chief; top third of a coat of arms

Derived terms

Noun

chef m (plural chefs, feminine cheffe)

1. A boss, chief, leader.

2. A culinary chef, chief cook

Derived terms

Descendants

Further reading

• “chef” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Italian

Alternative forms

• scef (uncommon)

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French chef (“head; chief”), from Middle French chief, from Old French chief, from Vulgar Latin capus, from Latin caput (“head”), from Proto-Italic *kaput, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *káput.
Doublet of capo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???f/

Noun

chef m (invariable)

1. (cooking) chef (head cook)

   Synonym: capocuoco

2. (by extension) A sophisticated cook.

Related terms

• sous-chef

References

• chef in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old French chief, from Latin caput.

Alternative forms

• cheef, cheefe, chefe, chief, chif, chife, chyeef, chyff

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?e?f/

Noun

chef (uncountable)

1. A leader, boss, or director; a chief official; one in charge.
2. A authority or source of power; something which controls.
3. The main, important or foundational part of something.
4. The upper or topmost portion of something.
5. (heraldry) The heraldic chief.

Related terms

• bonchef
• chefly
• cheveteyn
• myschef

Descendants

• English: chief
• Scots: chief

References

• “ch??f, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-12.

Adjective

chef (plural and weak singular cheve, comparative chever, superlative chevest)

1. Chief, head, top-ranking, executive; being in ultimate control.
2. Principal, foremost, predominant, primary; having the greatest importance.
3. High-quality, outstanding, notable, worthy; deserving recognition.
4. (rare) Infamous; grave.

Descendants

• English: chief
• Scots: chief

References

• “ch??f, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-12.

Adverb

chef

1. (rare) Principally, (the) most.

References

• “ch??fe, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-12.

Etymology 2

Noun

chef

1. Alternative form of chaf

Norman

Etymology

From Old French chief, chef, from Vulgar Latin capus, from Latin caput (“head”), from Proto-Indo-European *kauput-, *kaput-.

Noun

chef m (plural chefs)

1. (Jersey) chief

Derived terms

• chef dé deu (“chief mourner”)
• chef dé musique (“conductor”)

Old French

Noun

chef m (oblique plural ches, nominative singular ches, nominative plural chef)

1. Alternative form of chief

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from French chef. Doublet of chefe, cabo, and caput

Noun

chef m, f (plural chefs)

1. chef (the head cook of an establishment such as a restaurant)

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Turkish kef, keyif.

Noun

chef n (plural chefuri)

1. (good) disposition, mood

   A nu avea chef de ceva.

   To not feel like/be in the mood for something.

2. desire, wish
3. (figuratively) appetite
4. whim, caprice
5. shindig, blowout,
6. revelry, binge; by extension, drunkenness

See also

• (disposition) dispozi?ie
• (wish): dorin??
• (appetite): poft?
• (caprice): capriciu, dambla
• (shindig): petrecere, zaiafet
• (drunkenness): be?ie

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from French chef. Doublet of jefe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t??ef/, [?t??ef]

Noun

chef m or f (plural chefs)

1. a chef, head cook

Related terms

• jefe
• cabeza

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from French chef.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?e?f/, /???f/

Noun

chef c

1. A boss; person in charge, person who directly oversees the work being done

Declension

Derived terms

• avdelningschef
• försäljningschef
• mellanchef

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