different between chief vs jefe

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

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish jefe (“leader, boss”). Doublet of chief.

Noun

jefe (plural jefes)

1. (US, informal) An officer with political influence; a head or chief in government, such as a sheriff, particularly where that person is Hispanic or of Mexican descent.
   • 1887, Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Central America, page 153, History Company

     Antonio Rivera Cabezas was chosen vice-jefe in March 1830.

   • 1898, Southern Pacific Company Passenger Department, Sunset, Sunset Magazines Inc. (1912), pages 313-314

     before he stepped forward uttering the stereotyped greeting, the Texan had put him down as the jefe or head man....

     Snatching up the rifle he lit out after the jefe, who had left two jumps ahead of the smoke.

   • 1900, United States War Department, Annual Reports of the War Department, U.S. Government Printing Office

     Hilario Saño, a suspect, resident here but much doubted by the jefe local, was put to the test

2. (US) A boss in a business, company, or other organization.
   • 1982 January, George Durham, Taming the Nueces Strip: The Story of McNelly's Rangers, page 120, University of Texas Press

     “They ain’t going to deliver the cattle across.... They’ve taken too much of a beating as it is. They’ve lost their big jefe and lots of men.”

   • 1998 June, Thomas Miller Klubock, Contested communities: Class, Gender, and Politics in Chile's El Teniente Copper Mine, 1904-1948, page 147, Duke University Press

     When they were slacking off in the mine, for example, and a jefe arrived unexpectedly, they shouted loro (parrot) or fuego (fire) as warning signals.

   • 2004 December, Jeffrey Harris Cohen, The Culture of Migration in Southern Mexico, University of Texas Press

     A jefe in this sense is a mentor, a person who is often a compadre of the migrant.... In any case, a jefe is not a loan shark

   • 2005 May, Monica Rico, EMails that Go Nowhere, Google Mail.

     A jefe in this sense refers to a true boss, the leader of the household, also known as Jose Rico.

Translations

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:jefe.

Spanish

Alternative forms

• gefe (obsolete)
• xefe (pre-1815)

Etymology

From Old Spanish xefe, from Old French chief, from Latin caput. Compare Portuguese chefe. Doublet of cabo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?xefe/, [?xe.fe]

Noun

jefe m (plural jefes, feminine jefa, feminine plural jefas)

1. chief; president; head; leader of a business, political party, or other organization

   Synonym: superior

2. boss; supervisor; manager
3. (military) colonel; major; rank between captain and general
4. (heraldry) chief
5. (video games) boss
6. (colloquial, Mexico) dad, father

Antonyms

• subalterno m
• subordinado m

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• ? English: jefe
• ? Cebuano: hepe

See also

• sargento m
• coronel m
• general m
• director m
• supervisor m

Anagrams

• feje m