sachem
/ˈseɪt͡ʃəm/ noun
Forms sachems
- noun A chief of one or several Native American tribe(s), especially of the Algonquians; a sagamore.
- noun A boss, a leader.
- noun (archaic) An eminent member of a group, or an eminent person in society; a sagamore.
- noun (politics) A high-ranking officer of the Tammany Hall political organization.
- noun A butterfly of the Americas, Atalopedes campestris.
Synonyms
administrator boss chief commander director governor jefe head head man higher-up honcho leader manager master overseer suit superintendent superior supervisor sagamore
Etymology
Borrowed from Narragansett sachem; compare Mi'kmaq saqamaw (“chief”) and Unami sakima (“chief”), all ultimately from Proto-Algonquian *sa·kima·wa. Doublet of sagamore.
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sachem”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details