different between chef vs chief

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 chef, borrowed from Old French chief (“leader”), from Vulgar Latin capus (from which also captain, chieftain), from Latin caput (“head”) (English cap (“head covering”)), from Proto-Indo-European *kauput- (English head).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?i?f/
• Rhymes: -i?f

Noun

chief (plural chiefs)

2. A leader or head of a group of people, organisation, etc. [from 13th c.]
   • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus 2010, p. 4:

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

   All firefighters report to the fire 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".

4. The principal part or top of anything.
5. An informal term of address, sometimes ironic.

   Hey, chief.

Synonyms

• chieftain
• chiefess (female chief)
• See also Thesaurus:boss

Derived terms

Pages starting with “chief”.

Related terms

• captain
• chef
• chieftain

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ??? (ch?fu)
• ? Swahili: chifu

Translations

Adjective

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

1. Primary; principal.
2. (Scotland) Intimate, friendly.
   • 2006, James Robertson: The Testament of Gideon Mack, p 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.'

Translations

Verb

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

1. (US, slang) To smoke cannabis.
   • 2012, Marquis "Cream" Cureton, When the Smoke Clears (page 268)

     He chiefed on the bud like a pro, taking long deep hits and holding it within until he had inhaled as much of the weed smoke as he could.

See also

• chef

Anagrams

• cheif, fiche, fiché

Middle English

Noun

chief

1. Alternative form of chef

Adjective

chief

1. Alternative form of chef

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French chief.

Noun

chief m (plural chiefs)

1. head

Descendants

• French: chef (see there for further descendants)

Old French

Alternative forms

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

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t?je?f/

Noun

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

1. (anatomy) head
   • circa 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)

Descendants

• Middle French: chief
  • French: chef (see there for further descendants)
• Norman: chef
• ? Middle English: chef
  • English: chief
  • Scots: chief
• ? Old Spanish: xefe
  • Spanish: jefe, gefe
    • ? English: jefe
    • ? Cebuano: hepe
  • ? Asturian: xefe
  • ? Galician: xefe
  • ? Portuguese: chefe